Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) returned to the Capitol on Monday for the first time in three months after being hospitalized for a fall that kept him away from public view for 92 days.
McConnell said he promised Senate Majority Leader John Thune that he would “do my best to be there for tough votes when Congress needs me.”
“Today I will be voting in the Senate for the first time since the debacle in June,” McConnell said in a statement. “I’m really looking forward to getting back to the Senate floor and seeing my colleagues.”
It was the 84-year-old former Senate Republican leader’s first public appearance since he was hospitalized on June 14, ending months of questions about his health and whether he could return before his final term expires in January.
McConnell hasn’t voted in the Senate since June 11, missing dozens of votes while out of office. His return comes as the Senate reconvenes on Monday after a five-week summer recess.
McConnell, considered a master of legislative rules, was hospitalized on June 14 after a fall at his home in Washington. He later said the fall left him briefly unconscious, but that doctors determined he had not suffered a heart attack, stroke or concussion, and did not have any broken bones. He then developed mild pneumonia, according to his office.
After nearly a month in the hospital, McConnell announced in July that he had been transferred to a rehabilitation center. He remained there for more than three weeks before announcing he would be discharged from the hospital on August 6 and continue “intensive physical therapy” at home.
But McConnell’s prolonged absence from public view has led to increased scrutiny of his health.
His office released a written statement and two photos of McConnell convalescing. Among them was a photo of him holding a newspaper alongside his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. But until Monday, no video or audio of the senator had been released since his hospitalization.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) stepped up the pressure in July, calling on McConnell to “provide evidence of his competency to serve or resign.” Mr. Beshear suggested that Mr. McConnell might release a short video or speak to television and radio stations in Kentucky and called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to investigate his condition if he fails to demonstrate a likelihood of continuing to serve.
McConnell, who arrived at the Senate floor in a wheelchair, acknowledged Monday that his recovery had been a “long and often frustrating process,” and said it was complicated by lingering effects of childhood polio. “I’m not completely back to 100% yet,” the athlete said, adding that he would continue physical therapy on the advice of his doctors.
McConnell’s return will also restore the Republican vote share, which holds a 53-47 Senate majority.
The Kentucky Republican is serving the final months of a Senate career spanning more than 40 years. McConnell announced last year that he would not seek an eighth term and had planned to resign from the Senate in January.
His tenure helped reshape the federal judiciary and the modern Republican Party. As majority leader, McConnell blocked consideration of President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland in 2016 and later oversaw the confirmation of all three of President Donald Trump’s first-term Supreme Court nominees.
