U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell remains in hospital after fall, concussion

US Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was treated Thursday for a concussion and is expected to remain in hospital for “a few days” after he tripped and fell at a hotel dinner the night before, a spokesman said.

The Kentucky senator, 81, was at a dinner, after a reception for the Senate Leadership Fund, the campaign committee aligned with him, when he tripped and fell. Dinner was at the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC, formerly the Trump International Hotel.

Spokesman David Popp said McConnell “thanks the medical professionals for their care and friends for their warm wishes.”

McConnell’s office did not provide additional details about his condition or how long he will be out of the Senate.

Returning from a trip to Philadelphia Thursday afternoon, US President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House that he had spoken with the McConnell family.

“I think he’s fine,” Biden said of his former Senate colleague.

Concussions can be serious injuries and take time to recover from. Even one concussion can limit a person’s ability to recover.

In 2019, the Republican leader tripped and fell at his home in Kentucky, suffering a broken shoulder that required surgery. The Senate had just begun its summer break, and he was working at home for a few weeks while he recovered.

First elected in 1984, McConnell in January became the longest-serving Senate leader when the new Congress convened, breaking the previous record of 16 years.

Survivor of childhood polio

The taciturn McConnell is often reluctant to discuss his personal life.

But at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he opened up about his childhood experience fighting polio. He described how his mother insisted that he remain a child and worked with him through a prescribed physical therapy regime. He has admitted some difficulties in adults climbing stairs.

The senator left the Republican conference luncheon on Thursday saying McConnell’s staff had given him an update during the meeting. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said they were told that “he is doing well, feeling good, but he has a concussion.”

Romney predicted that McConnell would remain in the hospital over the weekend and return to the Senate next week.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, told reporters earlier Thursday that he had not spoken to McConnell. He said he was at dinner and McConnell had said “as usual.”

“Apparently it happened in the evening,” said Thune, who had moved on to another reception at the hotel and did not see McConnell fall.

None of the senators spoke to McConnell, although some said they had thanked him.

“We just have to make sure that leaders do what they say,” said Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday morning that he had called McConnell and spoken to his staff “to express my prayers and hopes.”

The Senate, whose average age is 65, has recently been without several members due to illness.

Sen. John Fetterman, 53, who suffered a stroke during the campaign last year, is expected to stay out for several weeks because he received treatment for clinical depression. And Dianne Feinstein, 89, said last week that she had been hospitalized for treatment for herpes.

The absence of two Democrats has been a challenge for Schumer, because of the narrow majority of 51-49 for the party in the Senate.

The Republican Party, as the minority party, had an easier time with intermittent absences.