Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he will stay on as leader of the Senate Republican Conference amid criticism that he is medically unfit to serve during remarks to reporters on Wednesday.
McConnell, age 81, froze before cameras on Aug. 30 during a press conference — the second such instance that has occurred in public — which had led several Republican officials and conservative commentators to call for his retirement. McConnell, following a weekly policy lunch with Senate Republicans, indicated that he would remain in office for the remainder of the 118th Congress, according to remarks he delivered at a press conference. (RELATED: ‘Neurological’: Rand Paul Questions Doctor’s Diagnosis Of Mitch McConnell)
“I have no announcements to make on that subject,” said McConnell to reporters after the lunch meeting, adding that “I’m going to finish my term as leader and I’m going to finish my Senate term.” McConnell did not say whether he would seek reelection to another term in the Senate, with his current term expiring in 2026.
Senator Mitch McConnell after being asked if he will retire: “I’m going to finish my term as leader and I’m going to finish my Senate term.” pic.twitter.com/RX8Lz8TXrI
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 6, 2023
McConnell’s fellow home state senator, Rand Paul, who is also a physician, suggested multiple times on Wednesday that medical notes issued by the Attending Physician of Congress were not forthcoming about the truth of McConnell’s medical condition.
“I can tell you that after a traumatic brain injury, 25% of people will have seizures. Of the people who have seizures, … 83% won’t show up on an EEG. When someone tells you, ‘Oh, he has a normal EEG, therefore he doesn’t have a seizure disorder,’ that’s not good medicine,” Paul said, according to Politico. The Attending Physician of Congress, U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Brian Monahan, wrote that McConnell is not unhealthy, following “brain MRI imaging, EEG study and consultations with several neurologists for a comprehensive neurology assessment,” according to a note issued to McConnell on Sept. 5.
“These look like focal neurological events lasting less than 30 seconds,” Paul said in an interview with Fox News host Larry Kudlow, according to a clip of the interview on Rumble. “They look like seizures … for people to say this is dehydration beggars reality,” Paul added, referring to Monahan’s first note which cited “dehydration” as the reason for his freeze.
“The way you counter misinformation is with more information,” Paul added, regarding the reason for his remarks.
Several influential conservative commentators and elected officials have called for McConnell to resign as leader of the conference following his second freeze. “To the layman, the incidents looked concerning. Regardless, this obviously is not normal and affects his ability to function as the leading representative of his caucus,” wrote the editorial board of National Review, a conservative magazine, calling for his retirement.
“Severe aging health issues and/or mental health incompetence in our nation’s leaders MUST be addressed,” Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia wrote on Twitter, now known as X, following McConnell’s latest freeze. “Biden, McConnell, Feinstein, and Fetterman are examples of people who are not fit for office.”
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