Sen. Mitch McConnell said Sunday that a fall last month left him "briefly unconscious" and hospitalized with a mild case of pneumonia, breaking nearly a month of silence about an absence that has narrowed Senate Republicans' working majority.
McConnell, 84, has not been on the Senate floor since June 14, when emergency responders were called to his Kentucky home. The Kentucky Republican said in a written statement, released with a photograph of himself and his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, that on his doctors' advice he "won't be able to return to the Senate floor to vote quite yet."
His return matters beyond his own caucus. With McConnell out and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina having died Saturday, Senate Republicans' 52-47 working majority has thinned. McConnell said he was keeping in touch with colleagues on "the appropriations process, midterm politics, and everything in between."
What the doctors said
McConnell said the fall did not produce broken bones, a concussion, a heart attack, a stroke, tumors or hemorrhages. He said he had "submitted to every test" his doctors could design. A statement from the office of the attending physician, attached to McConnell's, attributed the incident to his "post-polio condition" and said his hospital stay had shifted to physical therapy and fall-prevention work. He has since been moved to a rehabilitation center.
Details of the June 14 call had already reached the public. Police-scanner audio obtained by NBC News showed paramedics that morning performed CPR on a person experiencing "cardiac arrest" at a known address for the senator. McConnell's office did not disclose the reason for the hospitalization at the time.
Kentucky pressure
Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear sent McConnell a letter last week urging him to be transparent about his condition and fitness to serve. McConnell addressed the criticism Sunday, saying, "You all know how folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older."
Chao, who served as transportation secretary during Trump's first term, drew separate scrutiny after meeting Chinese Vice President Han Zheng in Beijing on June 17, three days into her husband's hospitalization. A spokesperson told the BBC last week that McConnell's health "did not warrant an immediate return."
What is missing
Sunday's statement offered no independent medical documentation beyond the attending physician's note, and neither document projected a return date. Beshear's office had not commented on the disclosure by press time.
McConnell, who announced in February that he would retire at the end of his term in January, was pictured Sunday holding the Sports section of the July 12 Washington Post — a dated proof-of-life image released the same weekend Senate Republicans lost Graham.