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Monday, July 13, 2026
Breaking silence on Senate absence, Mitch McConnell says he fell and was hospitalized
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, speaks at the Kentucky State Fair Ham Breakfast at the Kentucky Exhibition Center in Louisville, Kentucky, Aug. 22, 2024. (AP/Timothy D. Easley, File)
Senator Mitch McConnell reveals for the first time that a fall led to his hospitalization, breaking the silence about his condition after weeks of mounting speculation about the Kentucky Republican’s health.
The statement comes following his hospitalization on June 14. McConnell’s office for weeks provided little information, insisting only that he was “receiving excellent care” and recovering.
As his hospital stay grew longer, speculation mounted about his condition. It grew so intense that Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear took the extraordinary step of asking that McConnell update the public about his health in a “transparent manner.”
McConnell says he will not be returning to the Senate yet.
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