CINCINNATI — For the second time in two months, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) froze while taking questions from reporters.
Some have expressed concerns about the Senate Minority Leader's health after he reportedly suffered from three different falls over the past year — including one that gave him a concussion and fractured ribs, which put him in physical rehabilitation for nearly six weeks.
Neurosurgeon and CNN medical reporter Dr. Sanjay Gupta noted Wednesday that McConnell not only stopped speaking, but appeared not to be able to move his hands as well. Eventually, he was able to walk away and move his arms and legs.
"If you look at that video, his hands are sort of attached to the lectern. His aide comes over, tries to get him to raise his hand, he's sort of really holding on very closely," Gupta said. "Certain things like stroke and things like that are probably less likely ... seizure is less likely as well. His aides don't seem that surprised by this so we've seen this episode a couple of times, but you get the impression that it happens often because this is something that they're used to dealing with."
McConnell did not leave the event, returning to the lectern after a break to answer a few more questions after freezing. In a statement, McConnell's office said he "felt momentarily lightheaded" and said he would be consulting a physician before his next event.
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The freeze happened while McConnell was answering a question about running for reelection in 2026. There have been questions about whether the GOP leader should retire.
"McConnell's second lapse guarantees that pressure will build up for him to step down not just outside of his party but also inside of it," said Stephen Voss, associate political science professor at the University of Kentucky. "Whether he could resist it of course is a separate question."
Voss said if McConnell is pressured to step down, there could be a "lengthy period" where Republicans in a closely divided Senate miss Kentucky's seat.
In 2021,Kentucky lawmakers passed a lawthat gives power to the political party of the senator leaving office, and not the governor to fill a U.S. Senate vacancy. Ironically, McConnell urged Kentucky Republicans to change state statute.
The law says "the appointee shall be selected from a list of three names submitted by the state executive committee of the same political party as the Senator who held the vacant seat to be filled, shall have been continuously registered as a member of that political party since December 31 of the preceding year, and shall be named with 21 days from the date of the list submission."
Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed the bill during the 2021 Regular Session, but lawmakers overrode his veto. Beshear argued SB 228 violated the 17th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, so some politicial analysts see a potential legal challenge if McConnell were to leave office.
"That law has not been tested in the courts and if Beshear chooses to ignore it, appoints a Democrat — for that matter an Independent — and Republicans are forced to take him on in litigation, litigation can drive on for a long time," Voss said.
Voss also spoke about how this situation could play into the conversation about term or age limits for legislators.
"The unhappiness of leaders serving well past retirement age is not restricted to one party. It's not restricted to one branch of government," Voss said. "We've had discussions that maybe there ought to be age limits, even the longest serving public officials which is federal judges. Mitch McConnell is a Republican senator, Dianne Feinstein of California was also showing some impairment that led Democrats to be very unhappy with how long she was able to serve when they wanted to replace her with another California Democrat."
Mark Lotter, former staffer to President Donald Trump, spoke to Scripps News Wednesday about term limits and age restrictions, saying it is the "choices that the voters make when they reelect Sen. McConnell."
"I am not a believer in term limits, that's the power that's given to the people to make those decisions, regardless of whether it's health and age issues, if people still think their elected representative are doing a good job for them, they're going to send them back. If they don't, then they shouldn't," Lotter said. "But what we've seen in many cases, especially in the United States Senate, they keep hanging on for a very long period of time."
Lotter said McConnell's incident concerns him, but said "we haven't seen anyone go up to him and say,' Vote yes, you're supposed to vote yes on this,'" alluding to a time last month when Sen. Feinstein appeared confused during a Senate Appropriations hearing.
"The longer you're in Congress, the more power you acquire, the more seniority you get and that turns into power," said Voss. "So while maybe the country benefits from some turnover in leadership and would benefit from having younger people making some of the decisions any one's state, the incentive for them is to keep electing the same person until they are quite old indeed.
"This concern with leaders serving past their 'sell by date' as it's been called is bi-partisan and when you have people in both parties upset with something that's when you do maybe sometimes see a fairly radical change in law."
