Mitch McConnell falls down the senate’s stairs: what we know

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell fell down the stairs in the Senate on Wednesday, several media reported.

“Senator McConnell is fine,” McConnell’s spokesman told Newsweek in a statement. “The lingering effects of polio in his left leg will not interfere with his regular schedule for work.”

The context

Wednesday’s fall is the latest in a number of health -related events McConnell, 82, has had in recent years.

He announced last February last year that he would step down as Senate’s majority leader.

What to know

Fox News’ Chad Pergram reported that the Kentucky senator was helped to his feet by Republican Senators Steve Daines from Montana and Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma.

Pergram reported that McConnell had fallen after the vote to confirm Scott Turner as secretary of housing and urban development.

Huffpost’s Igor Bobic and Punchbowl News’ John Bresnahan reported that McConnell fell again after being helped on his feet. Bobic reported that the Kentucky senator was able to get up on his own after the second fall and that his colleagues were “curled around him” at Senat’s lunch.

McConnell was Seen in a wheelchair After falling.

Wednesday’s incident comes less than two months after McConnell fell after a Senate lunch, resulting in a sprained wrist and a cut on his face.

In March 2023, McConnell, the third oldest US senator, fell to a hotel in Washington, DC, and was hospitalized after suffering a concussion and a broken rib. The Kentucky legislator took a six-week absence from the Senate after the fall.

Four months later, McConnell fell again while walking off a flight canceled in Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. He was not seriously injured.

The former Republican leader also had two episodes in 2023, where he seemed to freeze up in front of TV cameras. He told journalists after one of the events he was “fine” and the Capitol Hill doctor cleared him to work.

McConnell had polio when he was 2 years old and his upper left leg was paralyzed as a result of the disease.

Kentucky Senator’s office has not yet released a statement of his fall on Wednesday but it released A press release About his vote to confirm Turner as a skin secretary and calls him “another positive addition to the president’s cabinet.”

What happens next

McConnell said last year that he is planning to serve the rest of his congressional period, which ends in January 2027.

Update 2/5/25 at. 13.45 ET: This story has been updated with additional information.

Update 2/5/25 at. 14:30 ET: This story has been updated with additional information.