WASHINGTON — Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell fell on stairs inside the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. Wednesday afternoon.
Montana Senator Steve Daines told ABC he saw the 82-year-old former Republican leader fall, but he was helped to his feet.
"I was right behind him and I helped him get back up and he walked on his own power to lunch," Daines said.
A spokesperson for McConnell told ABC he's fine.
"The lingering effects of polio in his left leg will not disrupt his regular schedule of work," said the spokesperson.
Photos circulated online showing McConnell in a wheelchair, being escorted through the Capitol. In the photos, he appears to be awake and alert and not injured in any obvious way.
McConnell fell in December while walking out of a GOP luncheon and sprained his wrist. He was also hospitalized in March 2023 with a concussion after he fell in a Washington, D.C. hotel.
Later that same year, McConnell froze for multiple seconds during a forum in Covington — the second time the then-Senate Majority Leader had frozen mid-speech, staring into space.
McConnell announced in February that he would step down from his role as Republican leader of the Senate — but that he would serve out his term as Senator, which ends in January 2027.
McConnell had polio in his early childhood and he has long acknowledged some difficulty as an adult in walking and climbing stairs. In addition to his 2023 fall, he also tripped and fell in 2019 at his home in Kentucky, causing a shoulder fracture that required surgery.
McConnell has been in the Senate since 1984 and has been Republican leader since 2007. South Dakota Sen. John Thune will become Senate majority leader next year when Republicans retake the majority.
