Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has been discharged from a rehabilitation center where he was recovering after a mid-June fall, the senator announced Thursday. He said he will continue his recovery at home and expressed gratitude for the support he and his wife received and for the care provided by doctors, nurses, therapists and hospital staff.
McConnell, 84, said he will continue to work from home but did not give a timeline for returning to the Senate. The chamber is expected to begin a roughly five-week recess in the coming days.
Questions about McConnell’s condition have persisted since his June 14 hospitalization, during which he had not been seen publicly. His staff has largely declined to answer detailed questions about his health, prompting calls for greater transparency from critics, including Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. Police scanner audio released last month indicated that paramedics performed CPR at McConnell’s residence the day of the hospitalization.
In a statement last month, McConnell said he had been briefly unconscious after the fall and that doctors had determined he did not suffer broken bones or a concussion. He also said he did not have a heart attack, stroke, tumor or hemorrhage, but that he had dealt with a mild case of pneumonia while receiving care.
Since being hospitalized, McConnell has missed 51 Senate floor votes and is expected to miss the vote to confirm Todd Blanche for attorney general if it occurs this week. McConnell announced he will retire at the end of his current term in January.
The senator has experienced several health issues in recent years. In February he spent a week in the hospital with flu-like symptoms. In 2023 he was hospitalized after a concussion from a fall at a hotel and drew attention that year for episodes in which he froze while speaking. He also fractured his shoulder in a 2019 fall at his Kentucky home. McConnell is among the Senate’s oldest members, after Sens. Chuck Grassley, 92, and Bernie Sanders, 84.