Outgoing lawmaker falls during luncheon and sprains and cuts himself
A US lawmaker fell during a luncheon and sprained his wrist and cut his face in his latest health scare.
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, 82, was walking out of a closed-door GOP luncheon at the Capitol on Tuesday when he suffered the accident.
‘Leader McConnell tripped following lunch,’ a spokesman for him told CNN.
‘He sustained a minor cut to the face and sprained his wrist. He has been cleared to resume his schedule.’
McConnell ‘walked back from lunch back to his office’, said Senator John Barrasso, who is a physician and was with the longtime leader at the time of the incident.
An ambulance arrived at the Capitol and medics departed after a brief visit to McConnell’s office.
Later at a GOP conference in which McConnell was not present, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said: ‘He is fine, he’s in his office, and any other questions about Sen. McConnell I’ll refer to staff.’
McConnell was later pictured with a bandage under his left eye as well as a brace on his left wrist.
The longest-serving Senate leader in American history in February announced that he would step down from Republican leadership. McConnell will remain GOP leader until the new Congress starts in January, and then is expected to continue serving in the Senate through the end of his term in January 2027.
Tuesday’s fall was the latest in a series of medical incidents that McConnell has experienced and caused concern to fellow lawmakers.
McConnell froze while talking at a weekly Republican leadership briefing at the Capitol in July 2023. He was escorted away from the podium by his party colleagues and returned a few minutes later saying, ‘I’m fine.’
Weeks later in August, McConnell froze while speaking a second time in Kentucky, his home state.
Last year, McConnell also suffered a concussion after falling at a hotel in Washington, DC.
On Saturday, McConnell appeared to take an indirect swipe at President-elect Donald Trump by saying that the GOP was ‘once led so capably’ by ex-President Ronald Reagan but that the US is no longer acting as a global leader.
‘Let’s be absolutely clear: America will not be made great again by those who are content to manage our decline,’ said McConnell, dropping a phrase similar to Trump’s campaign slogan.
Trump last year, less than two weeks after McConnell’s August freeze-up, celebrated a crowd’s chant for the lawmaker to retire.
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