Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reportedly fell during a GOP luncheon Tuesday, sparking renewed calls for him to retire.
A wheelchair was seen being wheeled into the senator’s office just before 1 p.m. and shortly thereafter, “a Washington, D.C. fire and rescue team emerged from his office,” Fox News reported.
McConnell, 82, was not in attendance at the Senate GOP weekly presser later Tuesday.
When asked about the incident during the presser, Senator John Thune (R-S.D) told reporters that McConnell was fine.
“He’s in his office,” the soon-to-be Republican leader said. “And any other questions about Sen. McConnell, I’ll refer to staff.”
A McConnell spokesperson told Fox News: “Leader McConnell tripped following lunch. He sustained a minor cut to the face and sprained his wrist. He has been cleared to resume his schedule.”
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wy.) described McConnell’s injury as “a small scratch.”
Barrasso, the No. 3 Senate Republican and a doctor, said he was walking out of the lunch with McConnell when the senator tripped and fell. He said he walked McConnell back to his office and that the senator was “100 percent” alert.
The senator has suffered several concerning health incidents in 2023.
In March of 2023, McConnell was treated the hospital for concussion after falling at DC hotel. Later that summer, McConnell suffered two separate brain freezes while standing at the lectern during press conferences.
Still, some Republicans, like the Federalist’s Sean Davis, have expressed doubts about McConnell’s fitness for office.
“Neither Mitch McConnell nor Joe Biden is physically or mentally capable of executing the duties of their offices,” Davis posted on X. “Everyone sees it and everyone knows it.”
Known for his brutally frank insights, Davis added: “Both are propped up by people whose power and prestige and access to wealth evaporates the second the incapacitated old men retire. Our nation deserves better than two corrupt and senile buffoons clinging to power for power’s sake.”
McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history, announced in February that he would step down from his leadership position at the end of the year, but vowed to finish his current senate term, which ends in January 2027.
“I still have enough gas in my tank to thoroughly disappoint my critics, and I intend to do so with all the enthusiasm with which they’ve become accustomed,” he said at the time.
If he were to retire early, he would likely be replaced by a Republican in a special election.
The Kentucky legislature passed a law earlier this year establishing that a special election must be held to fill the vacancy in the office of a U.S. congressman or a U.S. senator. Previously, it was up to the governor to appoint someone to fill a vacancy, but the governor had to pick from three individuals who had been selected by a committee made up of people who were the same party as the outgoing lawmaker. Andy Beshear, the current governor of Kentucky, is a Democrat.
McConnell announced last month he will become chairman of the powerful Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and the Rules Committee when the new Congress convenes in January.
“America’s national security interests face the gravest array of threats since the Second World War,” McConnell, an ardent Ukraine War booster, stated in the announcement. “At this critical moment, a new Senate Republican majority has a responsibility to secure the future of U.S. leadership and primacy.”
McConnell is up for reelection in 2026 and has not yet said whether he plans to seek another six-year term in the Senate.