Questions are rife in the United States around the state of health of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, at a time when the 84-year-old elected official has been hospitalized since June 14 for a problem not revealed by his services.
An emergency call published on June 30 by several American media revealed that this former Republican bigwig had been found unconscious at his home and that a cardiac massage had also been administered to him.
The elected official has since been hospitalized but no details on his state of health have been revealed.
Asked by AFP, a spokesperson for Mitch McConnell said the senator “appreciates the outpouring of support he is receiving as he continues to recover in hospital.”
The senator’s health continues to improve and he “works closely with his team on Kentucky and Senate issues while the Senate is not in session,” the spokesperson added in a statement.
Conservative commentator Scott Jennings said Tuesday he spoke with his “old friend Mitch McConnell this morning.”
“He is still recovering in hospital. We spoke for almost 20 minutes, about Iran, Ukraine, the ongoing situation in Maine…,” he added on X. Former Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell is considered one of the most important figures in American politics of the last two decades. The Kentucky elected official announced last year that he would retire at the end of his current term, next January.
Since then, the octogenarian senator has mainly been talked about for his health problems, notably in 2023, when he froze for long seconds during a press conference in the Senate, causing the astonishment of the journalists present.
The elected official also fell in front of the press in October 2025 in the corridors of the Capitol and regularly travels in a wheelchair pushed by his parliamentary assistants.
If Mitch McConnell were to resign before the beginning of August, a by-election would take place to finish his term until January.
A prolonged absence of Mitch McConnell would cause many problems for Republicans in the Senate, particularly in a very important budget committee where he sits. Without him, the commission would be left with an equal number of Democratic and Republican members.
Few elected officials have spoken for the moment on the mystery surrounding the former senior Republican official.
“Many of us don’t talk about Mitch McConnell’s health because we don’t know anything about his health,” Republican Senator Mike Lee said on X.
The age of elected officials and political leaders in the United States is a recurring subject, most notably illustrated by the withdrawal of Joe Biden from the presidential race in 2024, after questions about the physical and cognitive capacities of the octogenarian president.
