Washington – Sen. Mitch McConnell, the outgoing Republican leader of the Senate, suffered a fall on Capitol Hill after a lunch with colleagues and suffered minor injuries, his office said Tuesday.
“Leader McConnell tripped after lunch. He suffered a small cut on his face and sprained his wrist. He has been cleared to resume his schedule,” a McConnell spokesman said.
The 82-year-old Kentucky Republican is set to step down from his leadership role next month when the new Congress convenes, paving the way for Sen. John Thune of South Dakota to take the reins when the GOP assumes the majority .
Thune said McConnell was “fine” and referred more questions to McConnell’s staff. Medical personnel were seen leaving McConnell’s office, and the senator was seen wearing a wrist brace and a bandage under his eye later in the day, telling reporters he was feeling “fine.”
This isn’t the first health scare McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, has had in public.
McConnell was hospitalized in March 2023 after a fall that left him with a concussion. McConnell was attending a private dinner when he tripped and was in the hospital for several days beforehand finishing the internal rehabilitation.
Later in 2023, McConnell seemed to freeze in two separate cases that raised concerns about his general health. But McConnell and his team dismissed the incidents as isolated, and he said “Face the Nation” in October 2023 that he was “fully recovered”.