Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has had a rough couple of years regarding his health as the aging Kentucky Republican nears retirement at the end of the year.
And last month, McConnell experienced yet another incident regarding his health that has people even more concerned.
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According to his spokesperson, his condition is improving though he remains hospitalized, according to reports.
“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“The senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session,” the spokesperson added.
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McConnell, 84, was reportedly found unconscious at his Washington, D.C., residence on June 14 and may have suffered a heart attack, according to a dispatch call from the District’s Fire and EMS department.
The dispatch records indicate that an Advanced Life Support ambulance was sent to McConnell’s home shortly before 9 a.m. The call also referenced CPR being in progress for a patient experiencing cardiac arrest.
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McConnell’s office has not publicly commented on the nature of the medical emergency, the New York Post reported.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he has spoken with McConnell since the senator’s hospitalization, adding that McConnell remained “dialed in” on the Senate Republican conference’s legislative agenda.
The Senate is currently in recess and is scheduled to reconvene on July 13.
McConnell, who is serving his seventh term in the Senate, has experienced several health setbacks in recent years, including multiple falls that resulted in a concussion and fractured ribs, as well as highly publicized episodes in which he briefly froze while speaking at public events.
Earlier this year, he was also hospitalized after experiencing flu-like symptoms, The Post noted.
McConnell has frequently been seen using a wheelchair in recent months as he completes the remainder of his Senate term.
The longtime Kentucky Republican, who led Senate Republicans from 2007 until January 2025, announced in February 2025 that he would not seek an eighth term, bringing an end to his decades-long congressional career, noted The Post.
McConnell was admitted to a hospital suffering a ‘mystery’ illness, according to multiple initial reports last month.
Shortly after his admission, a spokesman for the former Senate majority leader provided an update about his condition.
“Senator McConnell was admitted to the hospital this morning. He is receiving excellent care,” spokesperson David Popp said, per CNN.
McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984 and rose to become Senate majority leader in 2015, a position he held for years as the longest-serving Republican leader in the chamber’s history.
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During President Donald Trump’s first term, McConnell played a central role in advancing the administration’s agenda, most notably by helping confirm hundreds of federal judges and three Supreme Court justices who reshaped the federal judiciary for a generation.
In recent years, however, McConnell has increasingly found himself at odds with both Trump and the direction of the modern Republican Party.
No longer serving in Senate leadership, he broke with the administration on several high-profile issues and voted against some of Trump’s Cabinet nominees, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr..
Explaining his opposition, McConnell, who survived polio as a child, argued that Kennedy had not demonstrated he was the right person to lead the nation’s top health agency.
McConnell has also remained one of the Republican Party’s strongest advocates for a robust American role abroad, particularly in supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression and strengthening deterrence against China in the Taiwan Strait.
Those positions have increasingly placed him at odds with a growing segment of the GOP base, which has embraced Trump’s more restrained and America First approach to foreign policy.
He chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
Recently, he expressed concerns about the Trump administration’s plan to increase defense spending through the reconciliation process, cautioning that there is no guarantee Republicans can achieve this.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
