WASHINGTON — Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell has been making telephone calls from his hospital mattress to Republican allies to dispel web rumors that he’s “mind lifeless” after 911 dispatch calls revealed the 84-year-old was rushed off “unconscious” from his DC dwelling in an ambulance final month.
The longest-serving Senate chief of both occasion reached out to his successor, Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-SD), Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) in addition to ex-adviser and present CNN contributor Scott Jennings following X posts from right-wing firebrand Laura Loomer about an alleged “cowl up” of McConnell’s failing well being.
“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of help he’s receiving whereas he continues his restoration within the hospital,” a spokesperson for his workplace stated in a press release. “The Senator continues to enhance, and is working intently together with his employees on Kentucky and Senate issues whereas the Senate is out of session.”
McConnell’s Senate colleagues issued statements that the retiring Republican was alert — and chatty.
“Chief Thune spoke with Sen. McConnell yesterday by telephone,” a spokesperson for almost all chief’s workplace stated. “They’d a prolonged and substantive dialog that coated a wide range of matters, together with nationwide safety.”
“Senator Barrasso and Senator McConnell had a prolonged dialog early this afternoon. Their telephone name lasted roughly 20 minutes,” a spokesperson for the Republican convention chairman additionally stated. “Senator McConnell was totally engaged and is keen to get again to the Senate.”
Jennings added in an X Submit that on Tuesday he additionally “talked for simply shy of 20 minutes” together with his former boss “about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding state of affairs in MAINE, my go to to the TR [Theodore Roosevelt] Presidential Library, and even somewhat little bit of Senate historical past. I instructed him we wish to see him again at work as quickly as doable.”
However not all of McConnell’s Republican colleagues have been briefed. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) stated Tuesday: “Many people aren’t talking about Mitch McConnell’s situation as a result of we all know nothing about his situation.”
Republicans’ 53-47 majority wouldn’t be imperiled ought to he be unable to complete his time period in January 2026, since Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear wouldn’t be capable of select a alternative candidate. As a substitute, a particular election would happen.
Unbiased journalist Desireé Townsend was the primary to uncover the EMS audio of McConnell being taken to George Washington College Hospital on June 14 — after he was discovered “unconscious” shortly earlier than 9 a.m.
Dispatchers on the audio mentioned that there was “CPR in progress” for a “cardiac arrest” at McConnell’s residence and referenced medical personnel in an ALS, or Superior Life Assist, ambulance had been despatched to the house.
The senator’s spouse, Elaine Chao, was in China on the time, a spokesperson instructed Fox Information Digital. Chao, who served as transportation secretary throughout Trump’s first time period, has since returned to the US.
“The secretary was on a long-planned journey in China to help her household’s philanthropic endeavors,” the rep stated. “Through the journey, she met with plenty of folks, together with the U.S. ambassador. The Senator’s well being didn’t warrant a direct return to the U.S.”
Proper-wing firebrand Laura Loomer additionally prompted frenzied hypothesis after posting Monday on X: “Excessive stage supply near the White Home tells me ‘Mitch McConnell is formally mind lifeless. He’s not coming again.’”
On Tuesday, Loomer urged that McConnell’s employees was retaining a lid on official communications “as a result of the Senators wish to F–okay Trump and never move the Save America Act,” the president’s signature voter ID invoice.
“Mitch McConnell is mind lifeless and hooked as much as machines!!! He’s 84 years outdated and was discovered unconscious and wanted to be resuscitated,” she added.
“Mitch McConnell fell in October of 2025 and will barely converse when he fell. Now we’re presupposed to imagine that he’s calling folks from his hospital room having elaborate conversations about philosophy and international coverage? Are you excessive on Hunter Biden’s crack?”
McConnell suffered freeze-ups in public — in addition to falls, one among which left him concussed and with a cracked rib in early 2023 — earlier than asserting in February 2025 that he wouldn’t search re-election.
He had been briefly hospitalized in February and handled for flu-like signs. Since then, he’d typically been seen on Capitol Hill being pushed round in a wheelchair.
Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) gained a GOP major election earlier this yr to exchange McConnell in a state that went for Trump in 2024 by greater than 30 share factors.
McConnell was first elected to the higher chamber in 1984 and served as Senate Republican chief from 2007 till 2024, when he introduced that he’d be stepping down from the place after the presidential election.
The one senators older than the Kentucky Republican are Senate president professional tempore Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who’s 92 years outdated, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who can be 84 years outdated.
