US Senator and former Republican leader of the upper chamber, Mitch McConnell, has revealed that his weeks-long hospitalisation had been due to a fall and loss of consciousness, with a subsequent bout of \u201cmild\u201d pneumonia.\n<\/p>\n
The extended absence of the veteran Kentucky senator had raised much speculation in Washington over his actual condition, and compounded problems for his party\u2019s narrow Senate majority.\n<\/p>\n
McConnell was admitted to the hospital on June 14, and his office did not provide any further details for weeks, repeatedly saying only that he was \u201creceiving excellent care.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
In a statement on Sunday, the senator acknowledged \u201chonest questions\u201d that had been raised about his absence.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurviving childhood polio meant spending my entire life with mobility challenges. They haven\u2019t exactly gotten easier to manage with age. And last month, I took a fall which landed me in the hospital,\u201d he said, adding that doctors confirmed he did not break any bones or suffer a concussion.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don\u2019t have any tumours or haemorrhages. But I was briefly unconscious and was taken to the hospital,\u201d he said, apparently dismissing rumours of a near-fatal health episode.\n<\/p>\n
He said that while hospitalised, he also \u201chad to deal with a mild case of pneumonia.\u201d<\/p>\n
The senator, who last voted in early June, did not offer a timeline for his return to Congress.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the advice of my doctors, I won\u2019t be able to return to the Senate floor to vote quite yet,\u201d he said, noting he had been moved to a rehabilitation centre to \u201ckeep regaining my strength.\u201d <\/p>\n
The statement was accompanied by a photo of the senator sitting in a medical bed and holding Sunday\u2019s Washington Post newspaper, with his wife, former US transportation secretary Elaine Chao, next to him.\n<\/p>\n
McConnell\u2019s health has been under close scrutiny for years.\n<\/p>\n
He was hospitalised in 2023 after a fall that left him with a concussion, later froze twice during public appearances, sprained his wrist in another fall last year and spent more than a week in the hospital earlier this year after flu-like symptoms.\n<\/p>\n
McConnell is not seeking reelection and is due to retire in January.\n<\/p>\n
But if he were to resign before then, Kentucky law would require a special election rather than allowing Democratic Governor Andy Beshear to appoint a temporary successor.<\/p>\n
Before the sudden death of Senator Lindsey Graham this weekend, Republicans held only a narrow 53-47 majority in the upper chamber.\n<\/p>\n
With McConnell\u2019s extended absence and Graham\u2019s replacement yet to be appointed, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has very little room for missing votes or defections as he tries to advance spending bills and other legislative priorities before November\u2019s midterm elections.\n<\/p>\n
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