Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said on Thursday that he had been discharged from a rehabilitation facility after a nearly eight-week medical absence, announcing in a statement that he would continue recovering at home as the Senate takes its scheduled August recess.
“On the advice of my doctors, I’ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I’ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement.
Mr. McConnell’s absence from Congress began in June when he was hospitalized after falling unconscious at his home. In July, Mr. McConnell broke a long silence regarding his condition by saying he had suffered from a fall and a “mild” case of pneumonia, and had since been transferred to a rehabilitation center to continue his recovery.
Still, Mr. McConnell’s long delay in providing an explanation for his absence and failure to provide any detail about his health, along with his disappearance from public view, have drawn mounting public scrutiny and criticism and fed conspiracy theories about his condition.
Mr. McConnell had attached photos of him and his wife, Elaine Chao, to his first statement as well as a second he released in late July to announce he had not been “medically cleared” to return to work. But skeptics asserted without evidence that the pictures were generated by artificial intelligence, and demanded video of the senator appearing alive and conscious.
Mr. McConnell’s extended leave has taken a toll on Republicans’ slim majority in the Senate, which was on full display on Thursday.
His absence deprived Republicans on the Senate Agriculture Committee of the votes they needed to approve this year’s farm bill over solid Democratic opposition. The panel instead defeated the measure and will have to return to it in the fall.
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