For the second time in a month, the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) froze during an interview with him standing behind a podium in a scary moment ultimately raising questions on his ability to do his important job.
During a press conference, the Minority Leader had a sudden brain freeze and was unable to answer whether or not he would run for reelection when his term expires and then blankly stared into space until someone from his staff intervened bringing him back to earth.
McConnell is 81-years-old and the health scare occurred during a live press conference at a Chamber of Commerce event in Kentucky. “What’re my thoughts about what?” McConnell asked after a member of the media inquired about his reelection bid.
The reporter again asked, “What are your thoughts on running for re-election in 2026?”
It was at this time where McConnell seemed to stare into the distance for approximately ten seconds while his eyes looked like they were about to pop out from his head. His aide then came over and asked “Did you hear the question, senator? Running for re-election in 2026?”
McConnell looked to be in a catatonic state as another aide ended the interview by saying “Alright, I’m sorry you all, we’re gonna need a minute.”
According to McConnell’s office, “Leader McConnell felt momentarily lightheaded and paused during his press conference today.”
Only one month prior did the senator do the exact same thing at a press conference where fellow GOP senators helped the minority leader out of the interview with many beginning to question his fitness to serve.
Some from his own party began to question his ability to serve. In a tweet from Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), “Severe aging health issues and/or mental health incompetence in our nation’s leaders MUST be addressed. Biden, McConnell, Feinstein, and Fetterman are examples of people who are not fit for office and it’s time to be serious about it.”
“These politician’s staff and family members should be ashamed of themselves by enabling and allowing their loved ones to remain in office all to hold power,” Greene later said. “We are talking about our country’s national security and it’s all at stake! 25th amendment and other measures need to be on the table.”
Many analysts on television began to speculate about McConnell’s condition saying it could possible be Parkinson’s disease or signs of a stroke. According to Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel, his guess ““would be Parkinson’s disease because that, in its later stages, can give you a freeze. It can also explain why no one around him in these freezes is panicking and saying, ‘This could be a stroke. This could be a seizure.’ It could be those things too, by the way, but again, then you would rush him into immediate treatment and analysis. You’d do an MRI, you would do an EEG to see if it could be a seizure, but if it’s Parkinson’s, you already know about that and somebody diagnosed that clinically by doing an examination, and treatment helps by the way.”