Did Mitch McConnell suffer a stroke?

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Republican Leader, stopped in mid-sentence and stood silently for thirty seconds during a press conference.

Mitch McConnell brain freeze

The incident happened yesterday afternoon, and questions about his health have lingered ever since. Senator McConnell was taking part in a press conference detailing process on this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Independent Journal Review gave details. He was saying,

We’re on a path to finishing the NDAA, uh, this week. We’ve had good bipartisan cooperation, and a string of, uh,…

At that instant his voice trailed off. An uncomfortable thirty seconds passed, during which time he stood at the podium, saying nothing, and swaying slightly.

Dr. Steve Turley’s channel on YouTube and BitChute has a “short” of the incident.

One commenter on the BitChute comment space suggested Mitch McConnell might have suffered “diabetic shock.” But to your editor, recalling his medical training, the Senator’s “presentation” looks like a cerebrovascular incident – a “stroke.”

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) stepped up to his right side. He asked,

You OK, Mitch? Anything else you want to say or should we just go back to your office? Do you want to say anything else to the press?

Again McConnell said nothing, and finally turned to walk away from the podium.

He later returned to the podium but clearly did not want to answer questions about what just happened.

Later last night, President Biden apparently called to check on him. Mitch McConnell told reporters, “I told him I got sandbagged,” referring to a fall Biden took at the U.S. Air Force Academy during their Commencement exercises.

Other health issues

Mitch McConnell’s health record is not publicly available, so no one knows whether he has diabetes mellitus, for example. But this morning The Western Journal carried this report that other worrisome incidents have happened before. On July 14, he tripped and fell while getting off an airliner at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. In fact, according to one second-hand report, he fell flat on his face. NBC News broke that story, but no one said anything about it until after the “brain freeze” incident went public.

In fact earlier this year he took a fall and suffered a concussion and a cracked rib. That incident caused him to be absent from the Senate for six weeks.

Lately he has taken to using a wheelchair to navigate crowded airports. It may or may not be significant that he suffered a bout of poliomyelitis as a child.

Wayne Dupree, in his podcast this noon, wondered whether McConnell should resign from the Senate.

Mitch McConnell does not come up for reelection unil 2026. He last won reelection in 2020 with 58 percent of the vote. Typically he gets 80 percent or more of the vote in primaries, except in 2014 Matt Bevin held his margin to 60 percent.

If he did resign, Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) would appoint an interim Senator who would hold office until November of 2024, the next Federal election. The winner of that election would then take office at once.