Mitch McConnell Freezes in Public at Another Press Conference

Senator Mitch McConnell froze in front of reporters for a second time in less than a year in Covington, Kentucky this week, sparking calls for his retirement. 



“Watching Mitch McConnell today, I’ll be honest, it was very sad,” Dr. Nicole Saphier said on Fox News. “He was clearly struggling, He was lost for thought. He was struggling to hold himself up. It seemed like he even had a gaze deviation where his eyes were looking upward.”

Saphier said that the conditions displayed could be symptoms of a concussion, a possible ischemic or circulation issue, or seizure activity.

The Senate Minority Leader, 81, fell earlier this year at an event at the Washington D.C. Waldorf Astoria Hotel. McConnell was treated for a concussion and rib fracture and returned to the Senate after receiving rehab. McConnell, elected in 1985, is one of the oldest and longest serving in the Senate.


“At what point as a society do we say ‘it’s time to just take a break and bask in our retirement,’” Saphier said. “Who are the people who are continuing to prop them up and have them be facing these situations? I’m not sure that they’re mentally or physically fit for the job of protecting and leading our nation.” 

 Dr. Marc Siegel said that the staff around McConnell reacted as though this was a recurring issue they were prepared for. 

“If you’re having a seizure or a stroke or something you’re supposed to be rushed to medical attention,” Siegel said on Fox News. “It might have been something that they knew about.”


Siegel said that the symptoms displayed by McConnell could be related to Parkinson's disease. 

“Maybe there comes a point where you have to say enough is enough already,” Siegel said. 

Alec MacGillis, author of The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell, interviewed over a hundred people associated with McConnell to track his political career. What MacGillis found was that the Senate Minority leader has shifted values to align with politicians and issues that furthered his political career. 

“He switched so quickly on so many issues, including abortion, to line up with the Reagan wing of the party that was then ascendant,” MacGillis said in an interview with Vox. “He was not a Reagan person. My theory of that is: He barely won his first Senate race in ’84, by less than 5,000 votes. Reagan won Kentucky by 280,000 votes. McConnell saw just how much more easily he won Kentucky, didn't want to have such a close election ever again, and it happened so quickly it suggests those early moderate roots were shallow.”

MacGillis said that McConnell has a consistent history of seeking elected office that goes back to student government in High School and College. His rise to power is tied to his fundraising efforts and ability to outspend potential political challengers. 

“The other part was being incredibly willing to stake out positions to help you win that one election,” MacGillis said, “and then abandoning them to a degree most politicians would find shameless.”

McConnell addressed his support of the Tobacco Workers Union in the 1970s while seeking a county election, a position he has since changed. The Senator told NPR that his union support was  “one of the few things in his public career to which he now openly admits being ashamed."

McConnell later said that he only would support a state passed law on union rights and would not endorse his own legislation for the union. 

“I was not pandering. I worked hard to get their support so I could defeat an incumbent they did not like,” McConnell told NPR. 

McConnell received criticism from Sen. Rand Paul for his foreign policy voting record and his support of the Patriot Act, which allowed the National Security Agency special rights to combat terrorism including the bulk data collection of phone records.

McConnell called the Patriot Act an “important counter-terrorism tool that’s needed to protect American lives.”

Paul criticized the special rights granted in the Patriot Act that allow police officers to enact warrants without city officials.

“We have something called national security letters,” Paul said. “These have been done by the hundreds of thousands.” 

Paul said that President Obama “was opposed to national security letters” while serving as a Senator “and said that they should have judicial warrants,” but changed his position to support the Patriot Act. 

“Part of my problem with the intelligence gathering in our country is it’s hard for me to have trust,” Paul said. “It’s hard for me to have trust in the people that we’re giving great power to.”

Paul also criticized the allocated resources spent on bulk data collection and that there is no data that supports its need. 

“I would say that we need more money spent on F.B.I. agents analyzing data and trying to find out who we have suspicion for so we can investigate their records,” Paul said. “I think we spend so much money on people for whom there is no suspicion that we don’t have enough time and money left to go after the people who would actually harm us.”

Paul said that the Patriot Act is now being used to fight domestic crime with the placing of listening devices with provisions that were initially placed to fight terrorism after the World Trade Center attacks. 

“We've allowed our freedom to slip away,” Paul said. “We allow the Fourth Amendment to be diminished. We allowed the narrowing loss of something called probable cause. There’s no reason why the Constitution can’t be used. But we just have to not let those who are in power make us cower in fear.”

The Patriot Act expired in 2015 and was replaced a day later by the USA Freedom Act.

“My other concern about this is the same people will judge it that judged the previous system,” Paul said. “These people are called the rubber stamp courtroom, also known as FISA. Realize that the FISA court is the court that said the collection of all American records is relevant. The appeals court basically laughed at this notion and said that it sort of destroys any meaning to the word relevant if you collect everybody’s records.”

Paul said that the bulk data collection of cell phone records could expand with the USA Freedom Act. 

The USA Freedom Act was extended in 2019 and currently expires in Dec. 2023. 

McConnell also faces criticism for his support of the Iraq invasion in 2003.

“The bipartisan votes in the House and Senate that month were a grave moment in American history that would reverberate for decades,” The Associated Press said.

Hillary Clinton famously spoke about her regret of supporting the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan while campaigning for the presidency. 

“I am opposed to Congress sunsetting any military force authorizations in the Middle East,” McConnell said earlier this year. “Our terrorist enemies aren’t sunsetting their war against us. And when we deploy our service members in harm’s way, we need to supply them with all the support and legal authorities that we can.”

As former President Donald Trump rises in the Republican primary election, age and cognitive function remains a centerpiece of the debate. With McConnell’s recent freezes in public and voting record that is falling out of favor with young conservatives, questions remain as to whether he will finish his current term in the Senate.

Follow the Wicksboro Report for the latest presidential election news on X @wicksbororeport 

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