A number of Republican senators expressed considerations about Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) well being and his potential to steer their caucus though a health care provider stated he was clear to renew his duties within the higher chamber.
“Next year is gonna be tough on anybody,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) stated of the 2024 calendar. “You gotta travel, raise money, campaign … it is going to be a packed year for anybody, but if you’re the leader, it’s double.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), in the meantime, stated he was involved about McConnell’s well being and the eye it’s getting in his state.
“I’m also concerned about the amount of questions I’m getting. I just spent a month at home and I was asked about it everywhere ― before the most recent incident,” Hawley stated.
“You can’t say that you’re concerned about Joe Biden but you’re not concerned about Mitch McConnell,” Hawley added.
Brian Monahan, the U.S. Capitol attending doctor, stated in a notice launched by McConnell’s workplace on Tuesday that there’s “no evidence” the 81-year-old senator skilled a stroke or has a seizure dysfunction following his second freeze-up in Kentucky final week.
Monahan has additionally stated that lightheadedness and dehydration weren’t unusual signs for individuals who have skilled a concussion. McConnell was hospitalized for a concussion after he fell and hit his head earlier this 12 months.
However Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a frequent thorn in McConnell’s facet on price range points and Senate process, didn’t seem happy with Monahan’s prognosis.
“I don’t think it’s been particularly helpful to have the Senate doctor describe it as dehydration which I think even non-physicians seeing that probably aren’t really accepting that explanation,” Paul, who’s an ophthalmologist, told reporters on Tuesday.
“From what I’ve seen, it’s a neurological event, it’s not dehydration,” Paul added.
McConnell briefly acknowledged the most recent freeze-up in remarks on the Senate ground on Tuesday, however the longtime GOP Senate chief gave no extra extra details about his well being and declined to take any questions.
Senators who spoke to McConnell stated he was in good spirits however that he nonetheless had lingering results from his fall.
“‘I’ve taken every test they’ve thrown at me,’” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Unwell.) recounted McConnell telling him on the Senate ground. “He said, ‘A concussion can take its toll.’”
The Republican senators who’re publicly backing McConnell amid heavy hypothesis over his political future vastly outnumber these elevating questions like Paul, Hawley and Tuberville. Hawley, for instance, was one in all solely 11 GOP senators who voted to oust McConnell as chief in a closed-door caucus election final 12 months.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of McConnell’s management staff, described McConnell’s detractors as a “very small group of people” that quantity “maybe a handful.” These senators will probably get an opportunity to air their ideas in a closed-door caucus lunch assembly on Wednesday.
The likeliest successors to McConnell within the Senate as GOP chief ― Sens. John Thune (S.D.), John Barrasso (Wyo.) and John Cornyn (Texas) ― all voiced assist for the Kentucky senator on Tuesday.
“He has my full support, and he’ll have, I think, the support of the conference,” Thune stated.
“I’ve told Senator McConnell I’m gonna support him as long as he wants to do the job and can do the job,” Cornyn added.
