Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said he was discharged Thursday from a rehabilitation center and would continue his recovery at home from a fall that has kept him from the Senate for nearly two months.
McConnell, 84, has been absent from the Senate since he was hospitalized June 14 following a fall at home. He said last month that he had moved to a rehabilitation center but has not provided a timeline for his return.
McConnell suggested Thursday that he would not return to the Senate before the chamber leaves for a five-week recess in the coming days. The Senate is scheduled to return to Washington on Sept. 14.
“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,” McConnell said in a statement.
McConnell led Senate Republicans for 18 years before stepping down last year to serve out the last two years of his term as a rank-and-file senator. Rep. Andy Barr, who won the Republican Senate primary in Kentucky in May, is heavily favored to succeed him in January.
McConnell has faced intense speculation about his health and when he will return to the Capitol over the past seven weeks, which occasional updates and two photos shared by his office have not quelled.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) demanded last week that McConnell “provide proof of his capacity to serve, or resign.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) and Sen. John Barrasso (Wyoming), the No. 2 Senate Republican, have said they have spoken with McConnell, though some other GOP senators have said they have heard little from him.
David Popp, a McConnell spokesman, said last month that McConnell had continued to work during his absence, discussing defense appropriations, the farm bill and constituent services with aides.
McConnell is hardly the first senator to miss votes for months while ill or in recovery.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania), for example, was absent for two months in 2023 while seeking treatment for depression. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) missed nearly three months of votes in the same year while battling shingles. She returned to the Senate but died months later.
Still, McConnell’s absence has had an impact. The Senate Agriculture Committee failed to advance a farm bill Thursday because Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) and McConnell missed the vote. It would have passed if both senators had voted for it, though not if only one of them was there.
McConnell said in a statement last month that he did not break any bones when he fell and did not suffer a concussion, a heart attack, a stroke or a hemorrhage. He has said he has tried to follow the advice of his doctors — which Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) said he thought was the right approach.
“I think Mitch’s health comes first, for him and his family,” Kennedy told reporters Thursday after learning McConnell had been discharged from the rehabilitation center. “And I think he ought to listen to his doctors.”
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