Mitch McConnell gives health update after weeks of speculation
It follows weeks of speculation surrounding the 84-year-old's health after he was rushed to hospital, with Trump loyalists spreading rumours he was "brain-dead"
Republican senator Mitch McConnell has spoken out for the first time following weeks of speculation surrounding his health.
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On Sunday, the Kentucky senator's office released a statement explaining that his absence was due to a fall and a "mild case of pneumonia".
The 84-year-old said he was "briefly unconscious" following the fall and had undergone a battery of testing to determine the cause.
It follows weeks of speculation surrounding the 84-year-old's health after he was rushed to hospital three weeks ago on June 14, with Trump loyalists spreading rumours he was "brain-dead".
Explaining his long absence, McConnell said: "Folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older".
Read more: US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham dies aged 71 after 'brief and sudden illness'
“Even in the public eye, I feel that same instinct – I can’t help it."
He added he will not be returning to the Senate "quite yet" and is now in a rehabilitation centre.
Without clarifying whether the cause of his fall had been identified, he listed the explanations that had been ruled out: “My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion. I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages. But I was briefly unconscious and was taken to the hospital.
He added that he had also faced "a mild case of pneumonia.”
The statement included a smiling picture of McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao, implicitly squashing online speculation that the majority leader had died or was brain dead after weeks of silence following his hospitalisation on June 14.
Conspiracy theories about McConnell were stoked by Donald Trump ally Laura Loomer,, who claimed on social media that he was "officially brain dead".
It follows the sudden death of Republican senator and Trump ally Lindsey Graham on Sunday after a brief illness.
NBC News said emergency personnel had responded to a call for cardiac arrest at his Capitol Hill home on Saturday night.
It's not the first time that McConnell has suffered a health scare.
In 2019, the Republican leader, a survivor of childhood polio, tripped and fell at his home in Kentucky, suffering a shoulder fracture.
Four years later he suffered a concussion after a fall at a hotel.
In 2023 he also sparked health speculation after freezing while speaking to reporters twice in just over a month.