# 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:** 37
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2026, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/722 "2026-07-29T19:36:58Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Hint: A still photo of someone brain dead looks just like a photo of someone in full health. Now, this I doubt. Perhaps with some grisly quasi-taxidermy, but in ordinary circumstances I can’t see it. But again, I’m coming from a position of ignorance – maybe has done something similar and I’m just never learned of it. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2026, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/723 "2026-07-29T19:37:22Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@TroutMan](#): > > > > Is it a conspiracy theory to think that maybe he can’t talk at all? > > Yes. It’s almost a certainty that he can not speak. There is no other way to explain his silence (despite the carefully worded comments from people who say they have “talked to” him.) ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2026, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/724 "2026-07-29T19:44:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, he still has brain stem activity. The pictures are still consistent with a total lack of cerebral activity (and what’s the term for that?) . **[A vegetative state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetative_state#Vegetative_state)**. After four weeks, a **[persistent vegetative state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetative_state#Signs_and_symptoms)**. It’s an intermediate step between coma and full cognitive function where the patient has regained wakefulness, but not awareness of their surroundings. ---
**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:** [July 29, 2026, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/725 "2026-07-29T20:12:36Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Right, thanks. I never do get them straight. I remember that we “care” about our old granny, and we’re willing to “aid” the poor people. Hypothetically, of couse. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2026, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/726 "2026-07-29T20:27:12Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@bordelond](#): > > > > he left out “pulmonary embolism”. > > And the Black Plague, Leprosy, and Smallpox, plus about 100000 other conditions and disorders. You’ve propped up a strawman. No one’s talking about random unmentioned\*\* maladies. Rather, it’s unmentioned maladies that can account for the least charitable observations of McConnell’s apparent condition. \*\* “unmentioned” here referring to statements from McConnell (purportedly) or his office. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2026, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/727 "2026-07-29T23:35:57Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Rather, it’s unmentioned maladies that can account for the least charitable observations of McConnell’s apparent condition. I do not think you are a Doctor (and I know I Am Not a Real Doctor) and I am sure you havent examined the Senator. Have you seen a Real MD suggest that? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2026, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/728 "2026-07-29T23:40:15Z")
Suggest what? That unmentioned maladies might account for McConnell’s condition? I’m pretty sure that every MD has suggested that. It’s kind of their job to. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2026, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/729 "2026-07-29T23:45:07Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Those of us you’ve been engaging with in this thread _today_ (and I believe yesterday as well) have _ **not** _ advanced any of “_Dead, brain dead or Coma_” – there’s no cause to throw us all in a common bucket. Nor did I say so. > [@bordelond](#): > > What’s been released publicly to date – including McConnell’s team’s second-hand account of the Attending Physician’s statement – leaves a lot of _ **reasonable** _ room to countenance serious, potentially permanent neurological infirmity. Indeed it does. > [@bordelond](#): > > The Attending Physician’s statement – again reported second-hand – fundamentally says little. About the only things it dies rule out is Dead, brain dead or Coma. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/730 "2026-07-30T01:29:23Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I do not think you are a Doctor (and I know I Am Not a Real Doctor) and I am sure you havent examined the Senator. Have you seen a Real MD suggest that? I don’t need a real MD’s input to form a layman’s opinion, nor do I need to have examined McConnell. I do have real-life experiences with debilitating illnesses in close elderly relatives, so in my own mind I’m not going off half-cocked. Still, despite that there are things I am “pretty sure of” in my own headspace, I won’t demand that you or anyone else agree. Additionally, there’s no issue with a layman forming an opinion from the limited information that is known now – and then adjusting and re-adjusting as more information is accumulated. Note, though, that there is more information present than just the plain readings of the public statements of MDs and of McConnell’s camp. Indeed, the specific limits of the information released are themselves clues. The wording of the information, the things advanced and the things concealed … all of that is important. The reticence of McConnell’s camp, as far as I’m concerned IS itself tantamount to medical information of a kind. Should McConnell returns to the Senate, able to speak, attend committee meetings, vote, and all that? Well, that will be still more new information – and I’ll change my opinion accordingly based on that information. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/731 "2026-07-30T01:32:34Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@bordelond](#): > > > > Those of us you’ve been engaging with in this thread _today_ (and I believe yesterday as well) have _ **not** _ advanced any of “_Dead, brain dead or Coma_” – there’s no cause to throw us all in a common bucket. > > Nor did I say so. Then please at least be clear that you are excepting present company when you invoke “_Dead, brain dead or Coma_”. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/732 "2026-07-30T01:42:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, he still has brain stem activity. The pictures are still consistent with a total lack of cerebral activity (and what’s the term for that?). In _Blue Velvet_, a guy gets shot sideways through his temples. The bullet destroys his frontal/prefrontal cortex. So he basically has no more mind. But his brainstem is undamaged and it keeps him breathing. His cerebellum is still OK, so it keeps him standing. He just keeps standing there. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/733 "2026-07-30T03:55:33Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > On the Health Plan thing: Mitch has been in Congress long enough and until old enough that he qualifies for pension and to keep his Health Plan with him into retirement. But as mentioned his household rich enough to not care. [There’s a great deal of misinformation out there about Congressional retirement benefits.](https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RL30631) They get the same coverage as any other Federal Employee, unless they started before 1984. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/734 "2026-07-30T10:04:54Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > After (I think) 5 years, any Congress members (house or senate) get a full pension and (I think) the same health benefits that they had as members when they retire. That’s a popular misconception. It hasn’t been true since 1984. Only the President and Vice President get full salary pensions. McConnell was elected in 1984, but he was first sworn in in 1985, so he just missed the old pension scheme. Congresscritters get amazing health benefits while they are serving, which end with the job. They have the same retirement benefits other Federal employees do. [So the “Full Pension” is only a fraction of the salary they received while actively employed.](https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RL30631) > Assuming that a Member retired at the end of 2016 with 20 years of congressional service under FERS, and a high-3 average salary of $174,000, the resulting annual FERS pension would be > > [$174,000 × .017 × 20] = $59,160 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/735 "2026-07-30T18:52:39Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Congresscritters get amazing health benefits while they are serving, which end with the job. But afterwards IIRC they get Health benefits like other Federal workers do- in other words, they pay the employee portion ands the Govt picks up the rest. Its a pretty good deal, but not free. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/736 "2026-07-30T20:59:29Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > afterwards IIRC they get Health benefits like other Federal workers do- in other words, they pay the employee portion ands the Govt picks up the rest. Its a pretty good deal, but not free. Yes. They have some marginal bump-ups vs. the regular baseline but it’s by no means a free ride. He _has_ well passed all the vesting times for those purposes by both time and age. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/737 "2026-07-31T01:32:26Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > It’s almost a certainty that he can not speak. There is no other way to explain his silence (despite the carefully worded comments from people who say they have “talked to” him.) For clarity, what those people have actually claimed is that they spoke with McConnell and had a coherent conversation with him in which he indicated that he was keeping up with current events. Their statements were not “carefully worded”, they were pretty explicit. One cannot rule out the possibility that they were lying, or omitting salient facts like he sounded weak and barely comprehensible, but they wanted the public to believe that they had a normal robust conversation with him. I can easily believe that they were lying, but let’s be clear on what they actually claimed. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/738 "2026-07-31T02:11:57Z")
I’m curious who claimed what. Do you have a source where i could look that up? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/739 "2026-07-31T02:31:27Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I’m curious who claimed what. Do you have a source where i could look that up?   It was all over the news that **[Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Majority Whip John Barrasso](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/07/07/congress/mitch-mcconnell-health-thune-barrasso-00988874)** claimed to have spoken with him. **[CNN commentator Scott Jennings also reported having had a conversation with McConnell on July 7](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/cnn-addresses-commentator-scott-jennings-153928915.html)**, but CNN backed off that claim a few days later, saying basically it’s not an official news report from CNN and they can’t vouch for Jennings. As I said, they could all be lying – and perhaps likely really are lying – but they did claim to have had actual conversations with him in the normally understood meaning of the word. Not that I necessarily believe them, but from the first cited article: > Kate Noyes, a spokesperson for Barrasso, said the No. 2 leader and McConnell “had a lengthy conversation early this afternoon,” speaking by phone for roughly 20 minutes. > > “They caught up about the latest news impacting Senate races, the Graham Platner scandal and the recent Supreme Court ruling on coordinated spending limits,” as well as the Senate agenda, she added. “Senator McConnell was fully engaged and is eager to get back to the Senate.” > > Both men previously said they had spoken to McConnell in the immediate aftermath of his hospitalization. In addition to Thune and Barrasso, Scott Jennings, a longtime McConnell adviser who is now a CNN commentator, posted on social media Tuesday that he had also spoken with McConnell. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/740 "2026-07-31T02:52:32Z")
Thanks. So i see two possibilities: 1. they were lying 2. his condition has gotten worse I kind of suspect the latter. It’s sadly not that uncommon for an elderly person to have one thing go wrong and then it kind of cascades. They fall and break a hip or a leg. So they aren’t very mobile, and they get blood clots. And then a blood clot turns into a stroke. Or they get bedsores which turns into a systemic infection which damages the brain. Or… After a certain age, I think once your body “loses it’s balance” it’s hard to get it back. My dad was a doctor before HIPAA, and he talked about his patients at the dinner table. Sometimes people in bad shape got better and he was excited. Other times things just kept going wrong. ---
**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:** [July 31, 2026, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937/741 "2026-07-31T02:55:33Z")
That still doesn’t really say anything. “A lengthy conversation” could be I talked to him for 20 minutes. “Caught up about the latest news” = I caught him up on the latest news. “Senator McConnell was fully engaged" = he never interrupted me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937.md?page=36) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitch-mcconnell-falls-twice-in-capitol/1013937.md?page=38)