Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell hospitalised after fall at hotel

Mitch McConnell ‘tripped at a local hotel during a private dinner’, says spokesperson

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was hospitalised after fall at hotel, said a spokesperson.

“This evening, leader McConnell tripped at a local hotel during a private dinner. He has been admitted to the hospital where he is receiving treatment,” Mr McConnell’s spokesperson said.

No additional information was immediately available about his condition.

Mr McConnell, 81, a retired attorney, is serving a seventh term in the Senate, after being first elected in 1984. He was the former Senate majority leader until early 2021.

Known as a pragmatist and a moderate Republican in his early career, Mr McConnell moved more towards right and conservative ideology in recent years, including opposing gun control measures and efforts to mitigate the climate crisis. He was one of the 35 senators who voted against the Capitol riot commission.

In 2019, the GOP leader, a survivor of childhood polio, tripped and fell at his home in Kentucky, suffering a shoulder fracture. At the time, he underwent surgery to repair the fracture in his shoulder, leading to him working from home for some weeks as the Senate started a summer recess.Mr McConnell has rarely discussed his private life. But at the start of the Covid-19 crisis he opened up about his early childhood experience fighting polio.

He described how his mother insisted that he stay off his feet as a toddler and worked with him through a determined physical therapy regime. He has acknowledged some difficulty in adulthood climbing stairs.

First elected in 1984, Mr McConnell in January became the longest-serving Senate leader when the new Congress convened, breaking the previous record of 16 years. The Senate, where the average age is 65, has been without several members recently due to illness. The office of senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, 90, said she was hospitalised last week to be treated for shingles.

Senator John Fetterman, another Democrat, 53, who suffered a stroke during his campaign last year, was expected to remain out for some weeks as he received care for clinical depression.

Additional reporting by agencies