WASHINGTON — Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is “fine,” his office said Wednesday after he was seen using a wheelchair following a fall at the Capitol.
“Senator McConnell is fine. The lingering effects of polio in his left leg will not disrupt his regular schedule of work,” a McConnell spokesman said. McConnell, 82, had polio as a child.
The spokesman added that McConnell is using a wheelchair “purely as a precautionary measure.”
Reporters witnessed McConnell falling down while walking down a small set of stairs leaving the Senate chamber on his way to a Republican caucus lunch.
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said he helped McConnell up after he fell while walking down the stairs from the Senate floor, telling reporters, “I think he just slipped on the steps, I was right behind him and helped him get back up, and he walked on his own power to lunch.”
McConnell initially exited the lunch on foot while he held onto the arm of his aid. NBC News spotted him returning to the lunchroom in a wheelchair shortly after.
McConnell, who still serves in the Senate but stepped down as Senate Republican leader earlier this year, has experienced a wave of health challenges in recent years.
The Kentucky senator fell in December at the Capitol following a weekly lunch with Senate Republicans, which resulted in him sustaining a minor cut to the face and a wrist sprain.
In 2023, McConnell had several episodes in which he appeared to freeze — one happened during a news conference at the Capitol that July and another happened that August while speaking to reporters in Kentucky. During the episode in D.C., McConnell was silent for 19 seconds. Earlier that year, McConnell was hospitalized and treated for a concussion after tripping at a Washington, D.C. hotel following an event the McConnell-aligned super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund.
In 2019, McConnell fractured his shoulder after tripping and falling at his home in Kentucky.
After the freezing incidents in 2023, some Republican lawmakers expressed concern about his overall health and wanted him to be more transparent about his situation.
The top Republican, who now chairs the Senate Rules Committee, brushed off questions, however, about his health struggles. After the freezing incidents, he told reporters at the time that he had planned to finish his Senate term, which expires in 2027. He has not said whether he plans to run for re-election next year.
