Several of Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Republican colleagues and allies said on Tuesday that they’ve spoken with him by phone, offering the fullest picture yet of the hospitalized Kentucky Republican’s condition after more than three weeks in which he has not been seen publicly and his office has said little.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) spoke with McConnell on Monday, and Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) talked with him Tuesday, their offices said. McConnell ally Scott Jennings said on social media that he, too, had talked with the senator, who remains in the hospital.
None of the accounts included McConnell speaking publicly himself, and his office has not disclosed what sent him to the hospital June 14.
Amid the official silence from his office and staff, others have rushed to fill the vacuum with rumors and theories. Right-wing influencers aligned with President Donald Trump have spread unverified claims that the 84-year-old is gravely incapacitated and have accused GOP leaders of a cover-up.
On Tuesday, McConnell’s team directed reporters to tweets from McConnell allies saying the senator was taking their phone calls as recently as Tuesday afternoon.
A spokesperson for Thune — McConnell’s successor as the top Republican in the Senate — said, “They had a lengthy and substantive conversation that covered a variety of topics, including national security.”
Barrasso, a top member of Senate Republican leadership, spoke with McConnell Tuesday afternoon for about 20 minutes, Barrasso’s office said. The two senators discussed the Graham Platner scandal in Maine, the recent Supreme Court ruling on coordinated spending limits, and legislative priorities like the National Defense Authorization Act and confirming Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, according to Barrasso’s office.
“Senator McConnell was fully engaged and is eager to get back to the Senate,” said Kate Noyes, Barrasso’s communications director.
Jennings, a longtime adviser to McConnell, posted on social media Tuesday that he had spoken on the phone with the senator that morning for about 20 minutes. They discussed topics including Iran and Ukraine, Jennings wrote.
But that has not quieted suspicion from some right-wing influencers who point out that the public has not heard from McConnell himself.
Trump ally and far-right activist Laura Loomer has shared posts this week alleging, without evidence, that the senator is in a “vegetative state” and criticizing McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, for taking a trip to China.
A spokesperson for Chao, a former secretary of transportation, said that Chao was on a “long-planned” trip in China for her family’s philanthropic work and that “the Senator’s health did not warrant an immediate return to the US.”
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McConnell, who has served in the Senate since 1985 and led Senate Republicans from 2007 until 2025, has not cast a vote since June 11. His absence comes as Republicans are navigating a narrow Senate majority. It has helped stall spending bills in the Appropriations Committee and added uncertainty around a senator already in the final months of his career. McConnell had already announced that he would not seek reelection this fall.
McConnell was admitted to the hospital on the morning of June 14, according to a statement from his office, which added that he was “receiving excellent care.”
EMS dispatch audio from the morning of June 14 suggests that emergency medical personnel were sent to McConnell’s home to attend to an unconscious person in cardiac arrest.
According to the dispatch audio, a call went out at 8:36 a.m. for an “unconscious” person at McConnell’s address, and an ambulance was sent with an advanced life-support crew. Six minutes later a medic radioed that CPR was “in progress.” At 8:43 a.m., a dispatcher relayed the emergency as a “cardiac arrest.” McConnell is named nowhere in the recording, though the address is his.
On June 22, eight days after McConnell was hospitalized, his office said that he wouldn’t be voting that week “as he continues his recovery.”
Thune, on the same day, told reporters that he had spoken with McConnell “toward the end of last week” and that McConnell “sounded good and was anxious to get back.”
A July 2 statement from McConnell’s office provided little new information but said he was still in the hospital.
“The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session,” his office said.
His office has not provided additional information since and directed a request for comment on Monday to the July 2 statement.
McConnell’s health has drawn repeated attention in recent years.
The senator had polio as a child and has long had difficulty climbing stairs.
In March 2023, he was hospitalized after falling at a Washington hotel and was away from the Senate floor for several weeks. Months later, he had two highly public episodes in which he stopped speaking during news conferences and had to be helped by others.
He was injured again in December 2024 after tripping outside a Senate Republican lunch, and earlier this year, he spent more than a week in the hospital after his office said he had flu-like symptoms.
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