US leader hospitalized for concussion after falling at dinner event
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the highest ranking Republican in the US Senate, is being treated for a concussion after falling at a dinner event last night.
McConnell, 81, was speaking at a dinner for the Senate Leadership Fund at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Washington DC. He was rushed to a local hospital after tripping and falling, his staff said.
David Popp, McConnell’s communications director, said the Kentucky senator will stay at the hospital for ‘a few days’ for treatment and observation.
‘The Leader is grateful to the medical professionals for their care and to his colleagues for their warm wishes,’ Popp said.
‘My thoughts this morning are with my good friend Leader Mitch McConnell,’ said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, McConnell’s Democratic counterpart.
This is the second time the Kentucky senator has been injured in a fall during his tenure as Republican leader. In 2019, McConnell fractured his shoulder after tripping and falling at his home in Louisville.
McConnell, who was first elected to the Senate in 1984, recently became the longest serving leader in the chamber’s history. He took over as Republican Minority Leader in 2006.
The average age for a US Senator in the 118th Congress is 65, and there are several Senators currently hospitalized.
Senator John Fetterman, the newly-elected Democrat from Pennsylvania, checked himself in for treatment for clinical depression in February. Fetterman also spent nine days in the hospital while on the campaign trail in 2022 after suffering from a stroke.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the 89-year-old Democratic lawmaker from California, was hospitalized last Thursday after contracting the shingles virus.
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