# Mitch McConnell falls twice in Capitol **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 6, 2025, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937 "2025-02-06T00:54:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/1 "2025-02-06T00:54:10Z")
Hard to walk without a spine I suppose. Seriously. **Fuck. That. Dood.** > **[Sen. Mitch McConnell falls twice at the Capitol, reports say](https://www.wowt.com/2025/02/05/sen-mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-capitol-reports-say/)** > > Sen. Mitch McConnell fell twice near the Senate Chamber Wednesday. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/2 "2025-02-06T01:03:50Z")
At least he didn’t land on his back and have to wait for help to get turned over. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/3 "2025-02-06T01:05:33Z")
Here’s the full story on NBC News. His spokesman says that it was due to the lingering effect that polio (which McConnell had in childhood) has on his left leg. McConnell was later seen in a wheelchair, “purely as a precautionary measure.” > **[Mitch McConnell using a wheelchair after falling down stairs at the Capitol](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/mitch-mcconnell-using-wheelchair-falling-stairs-capitol-rcna190840)** > > A spokesman for McConnell said the 82-year-old senator is "fine" and using a wheelchair “purely as a precautionary measure." ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/4 "2025-02-06T01:18:15Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > His spokesman says that it was due to the lingering effect that polio There has to be an RFK Jr joke in here… ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/5 "2025-02-06T01:23:53Z")
I hope he is fine and lives a long time. I want him to witness the damage he has enabled. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/6 "2025-02-06T01:26:10Z")
I saw a comment saying the pull of gravity from hell was getting too strong for him. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/7 "2025-02-06T01:48:17Z")
I am not 82 and I wouldn’t be fine if I fell down stairs. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/8 "2025-02-06T01:58:05Z")
Did he say [“Mitch McConnell fall down”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S47gxS3wPo)? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/9 "2025-02-06T02:58:48Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#): > > I hope he is fine and lives a long time. I want him to witness the damage he has enabled. - I will pray that his memories remain sharp and clear to the day he dies. And I hope there is an afterlife so he can continue to witness what he enabled. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/10 "2025-02-06T03:28:03Z")
I continue to not understand why Democrats don’t simply repeat what he said about blocking Obama’s every action and apply that to Trump, and just say they were quoting Mitch McConnell. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/11 "2025-02-06T05:26:39Z")
They don’t have a majority. They can’t really block anything. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/12 "2025-02-06T05:33:04Z")
In the Senate, you don’t need a majority in order to be a pain in the ass to the other party. The Senate operates under a cloture / filibuster rule, which effectively requires 60 votes for them to pass pretty much anything other than confirmations (cabinet, SC justices) and certain spending bills. This is how McConnell, despite being the minority leader in the Senate during Biden’s term, still managed to stall a whole lot of things. > **[Senate Democrats plan a vote to change the filibuster. So what is it?](https://www.npr.org/2022/01/17/1072714887/filibuster-explained)** > > The filibuster was once a rarely used tool for holding up Senate business. Now, it's a regular (still powerful) feature; some Democrats want it changed. Here are answers to your filibuster questions. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/13 "2025-02-06T05:37:38Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > At least he didn’t land on his back and have to wait for help to get turned over. You’re in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down… You look down and see a tortoise. It’s crawling toward you… You reach down and you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t. Not without your help. But you’re not helping. I mean: you’re not helping! Why is that? > [@aurora\_maire](#): > > I hope he is fine and lives a long time. I want him to witness the damage he has enabled. That’s why you do, Holden. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/14 "2025-02-06T05:43:48Z")
Is the Senate handicap-accessible? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/15 "2025-02-06T05:46:15Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Is the Senate handicap-accessible I would expect so; Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth is a double-amputee (having lost both of her lower legs when her Blackhawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq), and uses either a wheelchair, or a pair of crutches. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/16 "2025-02-06T05:47:47Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > [@PastTense](#): > > > > Is the Senate handicap-accessible > > I would expect so; Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth is a double-amputee (having lost both of her lower legs when her Blackhawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq), and usually either a wheelchair, or a pair of crutches. - Wanna bet that gets changed? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/17 "2025-02-06T06:25:43Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I saw a comment saying the pull of gravity from hell was getting too strong for him. I saw another comment about how gravity is working harder against the GOP than the Dems are. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/18 "2025-02-06T08:15:54Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > They don’t have a majority. Neither did McConnell most of the time. He didn’t let that stop him. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/19 "2025-02-06T14:24:06Z")
McConnell had help from Simena and Manchin. Yes, you can block some things as a minority party, but not much. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/20 "2025-02-06T17:51:09Z")
Not with Obama. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937.md?page=2)