{"id":6583,"date":"2026-07-07T20:08:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=6583"},"modified":"2026-07-07T20:08:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:08:38","slug":"as-health-rumors-swirl-gop-leaders-say-theyve-spoken-with-mcconnell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=6583","title":{"rendered":"As health rumors swirl, GOP leaders say they\u2019ve spoken with McConnell"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) at the Capitol on June 4. (Nathan Posner\/Anadolu\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Several of Sen. Mitch McConnell\u2019s Republican colleagues and allies said on Tuesday that they\u2019ve spoken with him by phone, offering the fullest picture yet of the hospitalized Kentucky Republican\u2019s condition after more than three weeks in which he has not been seen publicly and his office has said little.<\/p>

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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.<\/p>\n

None of the accounts included McConnell speaking publicly himself, and his office has not disclosed what sent him to the hospital June 14.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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McConnell’s office on Capitol Hill. The senator has not cast a vote since June 11. (Francis Chung\/Politico\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

On Tuesday, McConnell\u2019s team directed reporters to tweets from McConnell allies saying the senator was taking their phone calls as recently as Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Thune \u2014 McConnell\u2019s successor as the top Republican in the Senate \u2014 said, \u201cThey had a lengthy and substantive conversation that covered a variety of topics, including national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrasso, a top member of Senate Republican leadership, spoke with McConnell Tuesday afternoon for about 20 minutes, Barrasso\u2019s office said. The two senators discussed the Graham Platner scandal<\/a> in Maine, the recent Supreme Court ruling<\/a> on coordinated spending limits, and legislative priorities like the National Defense Authorization Act and confirming Trump\u2019s nominee for director of national intelligence, according to Barrasso\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenator McConnell was fully engaged and is eager to get back to the Senate,\u201d said Kate Noyes, Barrasso\u2019s communications director.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But that has not quieted suspicion from some right-wing influencers who point out that the public has not heard from McConnell himself.<\/p>\n

Trump ally and far-right activist Laura Loomer has shared posts this week alleging, without evidence, that the senator is in a \u201cvegetative state\u201d and criticizing McConnell\u2019s wife, Elaine Chao, for taking a trip to China.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Chao, a former secretary of transportation, said that Chao was on a \u201clong-planned\u201d trip in China for her family\u2019s philanthropic work and that \u201cthe Senator\u2019s health did not warrant an immediate return to the US.\u201d<\/p>

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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.<\/p>\n

McConnell was admitted to the hospital on the morning of June 14, according to a statement from his office, which added that he was \u201creceiving excellent care.\u201d<\/p>\n

EMS dispatch audio from the morning of June 14 suggests that emergency medical personnel were sent to McConnell\u2019s home to attend to an unconscious person in cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n

According to the dispatch audio, a call went out at 8:36 a.m. for an \u201cunconscious\u201d person at McConnell\u2019s address, and an ambulance was sent with an advanced life-support crew. Six minutes later a medic radioed that CPR was \u201cin progress.\u201d At 8:43 a.m., a dispatcher relayed the emergency as a \u201ccardiac arrest.\u201d McConnell is named nowhere in the recording, though the address is his.<\/p>\n

On June 22, eight days after McConnell was hospitalized, his office said that he wouldn\u2019t be voting that week \u201cas he continues his recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thune, on the same day, told reporters that he had spoken with McConnell \u201ctoward the end of last week\u201d and that McConnell \u201csounded good and was anxious to get back.\u201d<\/p>\n

A July 2 statement from McConnell\u2019s office provided little new information but said he was still in the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session,\u201d his office said.<\/p>\n

His office has not provided additional information since and directed a request for comment on Monday to the July 2 statement.<\/p>\n

McConnell\u2019s health has drawn repeated attention in recent years.<\/p>\n

The senator had polio as a child and has long had difficulty climbing stairs.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>

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Several of Mitch McConnell\u2019s colleagues and allies said they talked with him by phone, offering the fullest picture yet of the hospitalized senator\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nAs health rumors swirl, GOP leaders say they\u2019ve spoken with McConnell - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=6583\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As health rumors swirl, GOP leaders say they\u2019ve spoken with McConnell - 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