Mitch McConnell reveals fall led to hospitalization, mild pneumonia

United States Senator Mitch McConnell has revealed that a fall led to his hospitalisation, breaking his silence after weeks of mounting speculation about his health.

On Sunday, the 84-year-old Kentucky Republican said in a statement that he was “briefly unconscious” around the time he was first taken to hospital.

He explained that he has undergone a battery of tests to determine what led to his fall and was also treated for mild pneumonia. He has since been moved to a rehabilitation facility.

“My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion. I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages,” McConnell said, adding that he is now “regaining my strength”.

McConnell’s statement came on the heels of the unexpected death of his fellow Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina. McConnell said he cannot return to the Senate “quite yet”.

Coupled with Graham’s passing, McConnell’s absence will temporarily whittle down the Republican majority in the chamber by two, leaving the party with 51 senators present, compared with 47 in the Democratic caucus.

That may create difficulties as Republicans try to increase military funding, advance President Donald Trump’s agenda and confirm Trump’s nominees.

McConnell explained the four-week silence about his condition by saying that “folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older”.

“Even in the public eye, I feel that same instinct — I can’t help it,” he said.

McConnell said he will continue to work with his staff on Senate business. His statement included a smiling picture of the senator with his wife, Elaine Chao, a tacit response to speculation online that McConnell had died or was incapacitated.

McConnell had provided little information since his hospitalisation on June 14, his office insisting only that he was “receiving excellent care” and recovering. Speculation about his condition grew so intense that Kentucky’s Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, took the extraordinary step last week of issuing a public letter asking McConnell to update the public in a “transparent manner”.

McConnell is retiring at the end of January after one of the most consequential careers in modern politics.

Republicans have nominated Representative Andy Barr to replace him, while Democrats have nominated former state lawmaker Charles Booker. For his part, McConnell said he is determined to finish out his term.

“I still have unfinished business to complete on your behalf,” McConnell wrote in the statement addressed to Kentuckians, “and I have every intention of finishing the job you elected me to do”.

McConnell has a history of health problems, though. He had polio in his early childhood and has long acknowledged some difficulty as an adult in walking and climbing stairs.

The physician’s office in Congress in the statement on Sunday said that McConnell has “experienced several falls through the year” due to his “post-polio condition”. The office said his physical therapy is aimed at reducing the risk of him falling again.

“A comprehensive evaluation by a multidisciplinary team determined that he had no fractures, cardiac abnormalities, stroke, tumor, or hemorrhage,” the physician’s office said.

McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984, and was the Republican leader from 2007 until last year, serving as both majority and minority leader during that period. He has remained active as a rank-and-file senator, showing up for work when the chamber is in session, often using a wheelchair to get around.

But the senator’s physical condition has visibly declined in recent years.

He was hospitalised with a concussion in March 2023, and missed several weeks of work after falling in a Washington, DC, hotel. He twice froze up during news conferences after he returned, staring vacantly ahead before colleagues and staff. A year later, he fell and sprained his wrist while walking out of a Republican luncheon.