Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office released a new photo and statement Monday from the longtime senator, who says he is still undergoing rehabilitation and will have to miss the annual Fancy Farm Picnic in Kentucky this weekend.
Speculation and outrage have gone hand in hand on the internet as calls for more information on the 84-year-old senator’s fitness to serve ramp up. It’s the second photo McConnell’s office has sent to the press since he first entered the hospital on June 14 after a fall at his Washington, D.C. home.
In the emailed statement, McConnell said he is “working hard” to return to the Senate and continue representing Kentuckians. He said that he would not be able to return to the annual picnic held in Fancy Farm, Kentucky taking place on Saturday, a tradition that McConnell has rarely missed over his more than four-decade-long political career.
“When I first attended forty-two years ago, Fancy Farm was a pretty lonely place to be a Republican. But, my, how times have changed,” McConnell said in the statement. “Today, western Kentucky is a conservative Republican sea of red. So I hate that I’ll miss the fun this year, but I’m sending my best wishes to the St. Jerome community for a successful picnic.”
The Office of the Attending Physician said in a statement that congressional doctors are visiting McConnell daily and that he is maintaining a "strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation, including multiple sessions a day,” the goal apparently being to minimize the risk of future falls.
“His bout with childhood polio continues to be a significant factor in his mobility. He is not yet medically cleared to leave the rehab facility and return to the office,” the physicians’ statement reads.
McConnell has missed 38 roll call votes in the Senate and not done any media interviews since he was first hospitalized on June 14. Days after Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear released a public letter calling for him to release more information about his health, McConnell’s office on July 12 released a photo of himself and his wife Elaine Chao, along with a statement from McConnell finally explaining why he was hospitalized.
McConnell said in the previous statement he was “briefly unconscious” when first taken to the hospital and had undergone tests to determine what led to his fall. He also said he was treated for mild pneumonia and had been moved to a rehabilitation facility.
McConnell’s absence has complicated matters in the U.S. Senate, where Republicans hold a tight 53-47 majority. McConnell also holds key positions on both the Senate Agriculture and Appropriations committees — without his vote, Republicans and Democrats are tied. Among the legislation with looming deadlines are major spending bills and another bill containing Trump’s SAVE America Act to reform elections nationwide.
