McConnell hospitalized and ‘receiving excellent care,’ spokesperson says
By Manu Raju, Michael Williams, CNN
(CNN) — Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, was admitted to the hospital Sunday morning, according to his spokesperson.
“Senator McConnell was admitted to the hospital this morning. He is receiving excellent care,” spokesperson David Popp said.
The statement did not address the cause of McConnell’s hospitalization or his condition.
McConnell, 84, has faced a series of health issues in recent years. In March 2023, he suffered a concussion and broken ribs after a fall. Months later, he froze midsentence during a news conference. CNN later reported he had suffered two other falls earlier that year.
McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984 and became the body’s majority leader in 2015. As the Senate’s longest-tenured GOP leader, he helped shape President Donald Trump’s first term, especially helping to usher through hundreds of federal judges.
But during Trump’s second term, McConnell, who is no longer in the Senate leadership position, has often found himself at odds with the president. He cast votes against some of the president’s most prominent Cabinet nominees, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, said Kennedy “failed to prove he is the best possible person to lead America’s health agency.”
McConnell’s desire for an active US role in deterring aggression from Russia in Ukraine and China in Taiwan has also put him at odds with a growing share of the Republican electorate, which has embraced Trump’s more isolationist view.
He announced last year he would not run for reelection in 2026. Republican Rep. Andy Barr, endorsed by Trump, will take on Democratic former state lawmaker Charles Booker in the November election to replace McConnell.
McConnell said last year that when his term ends, he will leave the chamber “with great hope for the endurance of the Senate as an institution. There are any number of reasons for pessimism, but the strength of the Senate is not one of them.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
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