Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will be back in the Senate on Monday after a multi-week absence following a concussion and a broken rib, he tweeted Thursday.
The longest-serving leader in Senate history suffered a concussion and a broken rib March 8 after falling at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C. He was discharged from physical therapy March 25 and has been continuing his recovery from home. The Spectator World’s Cockburn column claimed, roughly two-and-a-half hours before the tweet, that McConnell is planning his retirement and that several senators are preparing to take his place.
“I am looking forward to returning to the Senate on Monday. We’ve got important business to tackle and big fights to win for Kentuckians and the American people,” McConnell tweeted. (RELATED: Mitch McConnell Discharged From Hospital After Concussion)
I am looking forward to returning to the Senate on Monday. We’ve got important business to tackle and big fights to win for Kentuckians and the American people.
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) April 13, 2023
The 81-year-old Kentuckian passed Democratic Montana Sen. Mike Mansfield to set the record for longest-serving Senate leader in January. McConnell became GOP leader in 2007. He served as Senate Majority Leader from 2015 to 2021, with all other years in the minority.
“He’s not going anywhere,” an aide to McConnell told the Daily Caller.
The Spectator World column alleged Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, John Barrasso of Wyoming and John Thune of South Dakota are in the process of reaching out to colleagues about who they would support in the event of McConnell’s retirement. Thune currently serves as Senate Minority Whip and has been leading the Senate Republican Conference in McConnell’s absence, while Barrasso is conference chairman. Cornyn served as whip from 2015 to 2019 and as National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman from 2009 to 2013.