Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been released from the hospital after suffering a concussion from a recent fall, but he’s not out of the woods yet.
“At the advice of his physician, the next step will be a period of physical therapy at an inpatient rehabilitation facility before he returns home,” McConnell spokesperson, David Popp said.
Sen. McConnell had been hospitalized since March 8th for treatment after the 81-year-old took a spill following a speaking engagement in support of the Kentucky native’s Senate Leadership Fund super PAC.
The longtime GOP lawmaker attended a dinner late in the evening on March 8th, before moving on to a reception at D.C’s outpost of the Waldorf Astoria.
After hitting his head during the fall, McConnell was reportedly in good spirits while receiving treatment. According to CNN, the former Trump loyalist asked hospital staff to release him.
“McConnell is acting normally and is eager to get out,” Josh Holmes, a political adviser to the U.S. Senator, said.
Chamber colleagues said the Senator was in “good spirits” during his hospital stay.
Though released from the hospital, McConnell is expected to remain in a rehab facility in the interim.
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In spite of today’s hyper-partisan political climate, Kentucky’s Democratic Governor Andy Beshear had nothing but positive words for the “longest-serving Republican leader.”
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“He is keeping the minority leader in his thoughts, but is waiting for the right moment to reach out personally,” GFovernor Beshear said, according to local media outlet WLKY.
“I want to be able to reach out to them at a time when I’m not going to interrupt their family. But we only wish the best for him.”
With the Republican Party split between old-world conservative politics and Trumpism’s New World Order brand of governance, the longtime GOP leader’s recovery is both a blessing and a curse for critics of McConnell’s pro-democracy stance and condemnation of Trump.
Love him, hate him, or leave him – but at the end of the day, the American people – and democracy – unfortunately need him to counterbalance the pernicious influence of Trumpism in the Republican Party.
Original reporting by Liz Goodwin at The Washington Post.
Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick
