Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) reaches out to assist Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) after McConnell froze and stopped talking on the microphones during a news conference after a lunch meeting with Senate Republicans U.S. Capitol 26, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell abruptly froze and was briefly unable to talk at a Senate press conference Wednesday, prompting his colleagues to rush in and help him walk just a few feet away from the cameras.
The chilling moments got here through the Senate GOP leadership’s weekly press conference within the Capitol, where McConnell, 81, was standing at a lectern when he fell silent unexpectedly.
Fellow senators appeared to quickly realize what was happening to the Kentucky Republican, and inside moments Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso and South Dakota’s John Thune stepped in to support McConnell’s elbows.
As Thune and Barrasso walked the GOP leader off to at least one side of the long, marble hallway, Iowa Republican Joni Ernst was seen crossing herself in prayer.
After just a few minutes, McConnell returned to the lectern and finished the press conference.
He dismissed reporters’ questions on his health, nevertheless, and whether his temporary inability to talk or move was related to a concussion the senator had suffered earlier this yr.
“No. I’m fantastic. I’m fantastic,” McConnell replied.
NBC News’ Frank Thorp captured the incident on camera.
A McConnell aide later sought to play down the scary moment, telling NBC that the Republican senator merely “felt light headed and stepped away for a moment.” The staffer noted how McConnell “got here back to handle Q and A, which as everyone observed, was sharp.”
The incident Wednesday occurred 4 months after McConnell suffered a serious fall at a Washington hotel that fractured his rib, along with giving him a concussion.
After per week within the hospital, McConnell was released to rehab and spent the following month recuperating at home before he was capable of return to the Senate in mid-April.
It was unclear whether McConnell received any medical treatment after the Wednesday incident.
Any significant change to McConnell’s health would have potentially major political implications for Congress and the White House. This is very true given how narrow each party’s margins are within the House and Senate.
Within the unlucky event that McConnell were unable to steer the GOP caucus on a each day basis, or solid in-person votes within the Capitol, there isn’t any obvious successor waiting to take his place.
This potential leadership vacuum was on stark display Wednesday when a reporter asked McConnell whether he had “anybody in mind to switch you if you’re not conference leader?”
McConnell didn’t respond. As an alternative, he just smiled and walked away.
