National

McConnell says he is unable to return to US Senate yet

By P.J. Huffstutter Reuters
U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense Chair Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S, May 19, 2026. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense Chair Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S, May 19, 2026. REUTERS/Tom Brenner Tom Brenner Reuters

U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell said he will not rejoin the Senate when it returns to work on Monday because he is still recovering from a fall and from pneumonia.

"As much as it frustrates me, this process takes time," McConnell said in a statement on Sunday, his first since he was hospitalized last month. "And on the advice of my doctors, I won't be able to return to the Senate floor to vote quite yet."

He said that he suffered a fall in mid-June that left him briefly unconscious. While hospitalized, he developed pneumonia and was treated with antibiotics, according to a separate statement that McConnell's office attributed to the attending physician. The physician was not identified.

McConnell, 84, said he is now at a rehabilitation center, which he did not name.

He will focus on "physical therapy and strategies to reduce his risk of future falls," according to the physician's statement.

The Kentucky Republican and former Senate majority leader, who now chairs the Senate Rules Committee, said he has been working with his legislative staff on current issues and keeping in touch with Senate colleagues.

McConnell has been out of public view since mid-June, when he was taken from his home to a hospital in the Washington area for ​reasons that were not disclosed until the latest statement.

Less than a day earlier, the office of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and one of the chamber's most prominent members, announced that he had died from a heart ailment.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas and P.J. Huffstutter; Editing by Sergio Non and Edmund Klamann)

U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) sits with his wife, former United States secretary of labor Elaine Chao, while holding what appears to be the July 12 sports section of the Washington Post in a photograph released by his office in Washington, D.C., U.S. July 12, 2026. Office of Senator Mitch McConnell/Handout via REUTERS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY
U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) sits with his wife, former United States secretary of labor Elaine Chao, while holding what appears to be the July 12 sports section of the Washington Post in a photograph released by his office in Washington, D.C., U.S. July 12, 2026. Office of Senator Mitch McConnell/Handout via REUTERS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY Office of Senator Mitch McConnel Reuters
An ambulance is parked outside the home of Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as police and fire vehicles block the street, on the morning when the Kentucky senator was reported to have been taken to the hospital in Washington, D.C., U.S. June 14, 2026. REUTERS/Bo Erickson
An ambulance is parked outside the home of Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as police and fire vehicles block the street, on the morning when the Kentucky senator was reported to have been taken to the hospital in Washington, D.C., U.S. June 14, 2026. REUTERS/Bo Erickson Bo Erickson Reuters

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published July 12, 2026 at 9:16 PM.

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