Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spooked reporters Wednesday when he suddenly became silent and stone-faced during a press conference — only to return minutes later declaring, “I’m fine.”
“We’re on a path to finishing the NDAA this week. There’s been good bipartisan cooperation, and a string of…,” McConnell (R-Ky.), 81, began before trailing off and staring blankly at the scrum for roughly 20 seconds.
“Are you good, Mitch?” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) leaned in and asked to break the silence.
“Anything else you want to say or should we just go back to your office?” Senate GOP Conference Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) also asked, to which McConnell shook his head and shuffled back with an aide.
The Senate GOP leader returned toward the end of the weekly press conference on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and faced questions about his abrupt exit.
CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju asked McConnell whether the brief freeze-up stemmed from an “injury earlier this year when you suffered a concussion.”
“I’m fine,” McConnell responded.
“You’re fine, you’re fully able to do your job?” Raju pressed.
“Yep,” McConnell said, before fielding further questions about first son Hunter Biden’s abandoned plea deal earlier on Wednesday and rumblings of impeachment in the House.
A McConnell aide later told reporters that the minority leader “felt light-headed and stepped away for a moment” but returned to the podium to field questions, “which as everyone observed was sharp.”
McConnell suffered a concussion in March after falling at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Washington, DC, during a fundraising dinner. Five weeks later, he returned to the Senate and immediately joked about the incident.
“Suffice it to say, this wasn’t the first time that being hardheaded has served me very well,” he said.
The GOP leader is among one of the longest-serving members in the Senate, having held his seat for more than 38 years.
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I saw the news conference….For a second there I thought he was going to say “you guys know our party is now just bull shit”…but I guess the internal controls will not allow him a single act of sincerity.
Lets face it, all these people are very old and but honestly do not see anybody within the GOP in the House that has the brains or gravitas to be a senator.
Notice that the CNN reporter was right there asking Mitch “you’re fully able to do your job” ? Like a stinking vulture waiting for his prey to die. I never heard this CNN clown ask Joe if he was “fully able to do his job” after Joe falls off his bike, trips over a sand bag, trips up the stairs, stares into space, shakes hands with no one, mumbles and stumbles and lies constantly, etc. What a low life Leftist.
Let’s all politicians retire at 65. We need new blood in congress