Sen. Mitch McConnell cut his face and sprained his wrist when he suffered a fall Tuesday at a Senate lunch but apparently was not seriously hurt.
The GOP Minority Leader was spotted walking back to his office without assistance after the incident that amounts to the latest health scare for the 82-year-old lawmaker.
McConnell was also escorted back to his office by fellow GOP leader Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), who hosted the lunch meeting. A medical team with a wheelchair later arrived at McConnell’s office.
Barrasso said McConnell had fallen after the lunch, shortly before a scheduled weekly press conference.
Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota), who will take over as GOP leader in January, told reporters that McConnell was not seriously hurt.
“He’s fine, he’s in his office,” Thune said.
Aides confirmed the injuries and said McConnell was cleared to resume work.
McConnell, who survived polio as a child, has suffered a series of falls and other health scares in recent years.
McConnell suffered a concussion and fractured rib in one 2023 fall at a Washington D.C. hotel, requiring rehabilitation that forced him to miss six weeks on Capitol Hill.
He froze for at least 20 seconds while speaking to reporters at the Capitol in July 2023 and had to be ushered aside.
A sometime-critic of President-elect Trump, McConnell announced he would not seek another two-year term as GOP leader in the new Congress, although he said he plans to stay in office through the end of his term expiring in 2026.
Just Monday, he delivered what some interpreted as a swipe at Trump’s incoming administration when he urged fellow lawmakers to maintain a muscular foreign policy and to resist “those who are content to manage our decline.”
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