GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to freeze for a moment and was unable to answer a reporter’s question at an event in Kentucky on Wednesday, weeks after he had a similar episode in Washington.
McConnell, 81, was asked if he would run for re-election in 2026, according to a video from a local news station. The senator asked the reporter to repeat the question before he fell silent and stared straight ahead for about 10 seconds.
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According to a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, a woman standing at the front of the room with McConnell asked him if he heard the question, and she repeated it.
When McConnell did not respond, she told the room that “we need a moment.”
McConnell then responded to two more questions — none of them related to the 2026 campaign — before pausing and appearing to have trouble speaking.
She then ended the briefing and McConnell walked slowly out of the room.
In July, 81-year-old McConnell froze for about 20 seconds during a press conference. Other GOP senators had to aid McConnell from the event.
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McConnell later returned and said he was “fine,” according to the Associated Press.
But as the AP noted, “In March, McConnell suffered a concussion and a broken rib after falling and hitting his head after a dinner event at a hotel. He didn’t return to the Senate for almost six weeks. He has been using a wheelchair in the airport while commuting back and forth to Kentucky. And his speech has recently sounded more halting.”
In 2019, McConnell, first elected to the Senate in 1984, fractured his shoulder after tripping and falling while working on a treadmill at home.
Breitbart noted that McConnell, who has led the GOP in the Senate since 2007, fell at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport a few weeks before the freezing incident.
He apparently was not injured at that time.
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