Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suffered a sprained wrist but was otherwise not seriously injured after falling following a weekly lunch meeting with his colleagues, his office said Tuesday.
“Leader McConnell stumbled after lunch. He suffered a small cut to the face and sprained his wrist. He has been cleared to resume his schedule,” the statement said.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said McConnell’s fall occurred after he left lunch and walked through a Senate reception room. He said McConnell had a cut on his face but was able to get to his office without assistance.
At a weekly news conference not long after McConnell’s fall, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) gave an update on the Kentucky Republican: “He’s doing well. He’s in his office.’
McConnell, who turns 83 in February, has a history of health problems. He decided not to run for party leader again after being publicly frozen twice during weekly press conferences in 2023. Thune will replace him as head of the Senate (GOP).
McConnell also suffered a concussion and broken ribs after falling during a fundraising dinner last year.
After the first freeze, McConnell joked that he was “in a sandbag,” a reference to President Joe Biden blaming a poorly placed sandbag on stage for a public fall after a speech in June 2023. In his second icy episode, a spokesman McConnell paused after feeling “temporarily light-headed.”
Although McConnell will no longer be the highest-ranking Republican in the Senate in 2025, a position he has held since 2007, he will still be influential as chairman of the subcommittee that handles annual defense spending.
