Mitch McConnell, the former Republican Senate majority leader, returned to the Capitol on Monday and cast his first vote after a months‑long absence that fueled rampant speculation about his health.
One of the highest-profile figures in Congress, the 84-year-old senator has been away from the Senate since mid-June, following what his office said was a fall that left him hospitalized. After weeks of silence, that spurred demands for greater transparency and stoked online conspiracies, McConnell disclosed that he had been “briefly unconscious” and “also had to deal with a mild case of pneumonia”. He was discharged from a rehabilitation center last month.
McConnell arrived on Capitol Hill in a wheelchair, and briefly addressed reporters on Monday evening before voting to confirm a federal judge to a district in Ohio.
Appearing frailer, he said he was back to help advance the latest farm bill and to support legislation aiding “our good friends who are totally in the fight against the Russians”.