Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said on Thursday that he had been discharged from a rehabilitation facility after a nearly eight-week medical absence, announcing in a statement that he would continue recovering at home as the Senate takes its scheduled August recess.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the advice of my doctors, I\u2019ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I\u2019ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business,\u201d Mr. McConnell said in a statement.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for Mr. McConnell did not say whether the senator would return to the Senate when the chamber, which is scheduled to begin a five-week break starting Monday, returns to session in September.<\/p>\n
Mr. McConnell\u2019s absence from Congress began in June when he was hospitalized after falling unconscious at his home. In July, Mr. McConnell, 84, broke a long silence<\/a> by saying he had suffered from a fall and a \u201cmild\u201d case of pneumonia, and had since been transferred to a rehabilitation center to continue his recovery.<\/p>\n The episode was just the latest in a string of medical issues for Mr. McConnell, who relinquished his leadership role in 2024 and announced last year that he would retire at the end of his seventh term in January 2027. It has fueled mounting public anger about a Congress dominated by elderly lawmakers who have served for decades<\/a>, at a time when many voters say that the officials leading the country are simply too old.<\/p>\n Mr. McConnell\u2019s long delay in providing an explanation for his absence and failure to provide any detail about his health, along with his disappearance from public view, only amplified the scrutiny and criticism, and fed conspiracy theories about his condition.<\/p>\n Mr. McConnell had attached photos of him and his wife, Elaine Chao, a former labor and transportation secretary, to his first statement as well as a second he released<\/a> in late July to announce he had not been \u201cmedically cleared\u201d to return to work. But skeptics asserted without evidence that the pictures were generated by artificial intelligence and demanded video of the senator alive and conscious.<\/p>\n With both statements, Mr. McConnell had also provided comments from the Office of the Attending Physician, the on-site doctor for members of Congress at the Capitol, which said the senator\u2019s bout with childhood polio had affected both his mobility and recovery.<\/p>\n The Kentucky Republican\u2019s health has been declining visibly since at least 2023, when he had a serious fall and was hospitalized with a concussion<\/a>. Later that year, he had a series of episodes in which he seemed to freeze in public, unable to speak<\/a>.<\/p>\n