Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is facing calls to step down from his own party after the senate minority leader’s latest health scare, Salon reports.
The calls for McConnell to step down follow his freezing during a news conference last month for the second time this summer, according to the report, which was published under the headline “Knives out for Mitch: Republicans target a weakened McConnell after he freezes up for a second time.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on Thursday became the latest Republican to call for McConnell to step down, saying he questions McConnell’s ability to serve, likening his concerns about one of his party’s top officials to those he's expressed about President Joe Biden.
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"I don't think you can have it both ways," Hawley told reports in the hallways of Capitol Hill Thursday.
"If you're concerned about the president's ability to do his job, and I am, and a lot of Republicans say they are, you have to be concerned when it's someone from your own party."
McConnell has dismissed calls for him to step down, telling reporters earlier this week: "I'm going to finish my term as leader and I'm going to finish my Senate term."
The 81-year-old also suffered a concussion from a fall earlier this year.
The report notes that Dr. Brian Monahan, the U.S. Capitol attending physician, said in a letter released by McConnell's office that "There is no evidence that you have a seizure disorder or that you experienced a stroke, TIA or movement disorder such as Parkinson's disease."
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) earlier this week cast doubt on Monahan’s characterization of McConnell’s condition.
"It doesn't look like dehydration to me. It looks like a focal neurologic event. That doesn't mean it's incapacitating, it doesn't mean he can't serve, but it means that somebody ought to wake up and say, 'Wow! This looks like a seizure.'”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) went further.
"Severe aging health issues and/or mental health incompetence in our nation's leaders MUST be addressed," Greene said in a social media post.
"Biden, McConnell, Feinstein, and Fetterman are examples of people who are not fit for office and it's time to be serious about it," Greene continued before raising the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment, which addresses succession and disability as it applies to the president.”
