As Spencer covered yesterday, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) froze during a press conference. The Kentucky Republican froze mid-sentence and appeared to not be in good health before being escorted away from the podium by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) and others.
WATCH: Senator Mitch McConnell appears physically unwell during press conference. pic.twitter.com/L861NebuNF
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 26, 2023
McConnell later said he was fine, and President Joe Biden had called to check up on him. The Republican leader quipped that he told Biden he got sandbagged. Yet, that’s not the whole story. Mr. McConnell collapsed at Reagan National Airport before his minor medical episode at the presser yesterday (via NBC News):
MITCH MCCONNELL RESPONDS TO INCIDENT DURING PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 26, 2023
“The president called to check on me. I told him I got ‘sandbagged!’”
pic.twitter.com/UdbEdk46jB
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tripped and fell while disembarking from a plane at Reagan National Airport earlier this month, according to two sources familiar with the incident.
McConnell, 81, was not seriously hurt, and was seen at the Capitol later that day, where he interacted with at least one reporter.
The July 14 fall, which has not been previously reported, occurred after the flight out of Washington was canceled while everyone was on board. McConnell, R-Ky., who was a passenger on the plane, had a “face plant,” someone who was on the plane at the time but did not witness the fall told NBC News. That passenger also said they spoke to another passenger who helped tend to McConnell after the fall.
The Senate’s top Republican has also recently been using a wheelchair as a precautionary measure when navigating crowded airports, according to a source familiar with his practices.
A polio survivor who has long struggled to navigate stairs and other obstacles, McConnell has a difficult recent history with falls. He suffered a concussion and cracked rib in a fall in Washington earlier this year, and spent six weeks away from the Senate. He fractured his shoulder in a fall in Kentucky in 2019, requiring surgery.
And the point is that McConnell appears to be okay, and even on his worst day—he’s more lucid than Joe Biden. Some anonymous Republican is quoted in the piece noting the physical and mental decline of the Republican Senate leader, which is understandable since he’s 81. But McConnell isn’t the president of the United States, and I’m sure he knows better than to consider that job in the future. As Spencer said yesterday, there’s also this guy who has barely recovered from a stroke—John Fetterman—who struggles to do the job.
Yes, I could see the media hyper-focused on McConnell’s podium scare; it distracts them from the unraveling Biden bribery circus. It also serves the Left no purpose of highlighting this health scare to score points for Biden as payback for all the times the president has devolved into an incoherent mess, which is becoming a daily occurrence: both men are too old to be president, so what’s your point, guys? The only difference is that Mitch has more sense. You’ll be chucking a boomerang bound to smack you in the lip.
