Mitch McConnell is back in a hospital bed. On June 14, the 84-year-old Kentucky Republican was admitted for medical treatment, though his team is keeping quiet about what actually went wrong this time.
His spokesperson, David Popp, offered the usual boilerplate. “Senator McConnell was admitted to the hospital this morning,” Popp told reporters, adding that the veteran politician is receiving “excellent care.” That is standard spin for a man whose physical decline has been playing out on camera for years.
He is a titan of the Senate. First elected in 1984, McConnell ran the Senate Republican machine from 2007 until 2024, when he finally handed the reins to South Dakota’s John Thune. He is a survivor. But even survivors have an expiration date. McConnell announced last year that he will finally step aside when his current term ends in 2027.
Lately, the machinery is breaking down. The public has watched it happen in real-time. There were those terrifying, silent freezes in front of press microphones in 2023. There were the falls. The wheelchair. Just last February, he checked himself in with “flu-like symptoms.”
Now, he is back under observation. The Capitol keeps spinning, but its longest-serving players are running out of steam.
