Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was hospitalized in Washington, D.C. Wednesday evening after he fell during a private dinner.
This was a breaking news story. The details were periodically updated as more information became available.
“This evening, Leader McConnell tripped at a local hotel during a private dinner. He has been admitted to the hospital where he is receiving treatment,” a McConnell spokesperson said in a statement, according to Fox News.
A source familiar with the situation said the 81-year-old senator fell at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, CNN reported.
McConnell isn’t the only hospitalized senator. Last month, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Feb. 15 to be treated for clinical depression. He had also been briefly hospitalized for lightheadedness earlier in the month – all of which followed him suffering what he described as a near-fatal stroke months before his election last year.
Since his latest hospitalization, Fetterman has been a co-sponsor on six Senate bills, according to Congress.gov. He has also joined two colleagues in signing an open letter calling for accountability from Norfolk Southern over the recent toxic train derailment in Ohio.
The Senate’s longest serving Republican leader, McConnell has been a controversial figure in recent months. In December, 13 Senate Republicans sent a letter to McConnell and other Republican Senate leaders, saying they would oppose invoking cloture on the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) unless the Senate voted on an amendment to end the military COVID-19 vaccine mandate and reinstate the troops who were discharged over it, with backpay. McConnell was silent on whether he would support such an amendment. The Pentagon finally lifted the mandate in January.
