Colleagues of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have become concerned about his increasing health issues, reported POLITICO on Monday.
This comes after McConnell, 81, has had at least three slip-and-fall accidents this year alone — he is a survivor of childhood polio and has dealt with minor mobility issues all his life — and after a peculiar incident in which he froze up for 20 seconds during a statement to reporters and needed to be escorted away from the podium temporarily by his fellow senators.
"[I]n many of my conversations, and usually not for attribution, another theme came up: how much McConnell has aged," reported Jonathan Martin. "Unlike with Biden, whose every gaffe and slip on the steps is caught on camera, McConnell’s difficulties have been largely out of view, or at least they were until late last month. In private, though, McConnell’s colleagues have grown more alarmed, with one lawmaker even talking to the leader’s staff about whether he should consider hearing implants. 'He was sitting there as the conversation went on around him,' said an attendee of a recent Senate Republican lunch, alluding to McConnell’s hearing loss."
All of this comes at a crucial moment, said the report — as McConnell fights to keep former President Donald Trump's hardline supporters from gaining further influence in the GOP against his more traditional leadership group. It also comes as the longtime senator, infamously an obstructionist against Democratic policy, has worked with President Joe Biden on a number of issues, from the bipartisan infrastructure bill that will upgrade a major trucking route through his home state, to support for Ukraine.
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McConnell, for his part, is defiant over concerns about his health, saying at the annual Fancy Farm political roast in Kentucky — despite at times being greeted with heckling and calls to retire — "This is my 28th Fancy Farm, and I want to assure you, it’s not my last."
But McConnell and Kentucky Republicans have been preparing for the possibility he might not make it to the end of his term in 2027. At his urging, the Kentucky General Assembly recently passed a "same-party law" requiring that the governor, currently Democrat Andy Beshear, select from a list of Republicans approved by the legislature to fill a Senate vacancy; such laws are common in many states, but until recently Beshear would have had free rein to appoint a Democrat to McConnell's place if he so chooses. Some observers have speculated he may try to ignore the law if McConnell's seat becomes vacant, but Beshear has refused to say if he would do such a thing.
