In the wake of a devastating fall in halls of Congress that has left him temporarily wheelchair bound, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the elderly and now-generally disliked Republican Senate leader from Kentucky, could be seen on tape having to be hoisted into a waiting transport vehicle from his wheelchair. That left many viewers angry, as they see him as hanging onto power well after the point at which he was physically and mentally capable of doing so well.
As a reminder, at the time McConnell fell in Congress, Senior Congressional Correspondent for Fox News Chad Pergram wrote, “Fox confirms. McConnell falls down Senate stairs after voting to confirm Scott Turner as HUD Secretary. Unclear about injuries. But Fox is told he appears to be ok. McConnell was helped up by Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT) and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK).” Adding a few more details, commentator Bryce Lipscomb said. “Rumors are circulating in DC that @SenMcConnell fell yet once again on the stairs of the Senate Building. Mind you these are rumors, but seeing how the former leader has tumbled 3 times in the past year alone, one must inquire if retirement is in order.”
In any case, at that point, he became wheelchair-bound, as photos of him after his multiple falls reveal. It would appear that that state of being remains the case for the elderly senator, who was seen being hoisted up into the vehicle from his pushed wheelchair in a video that took off online on Monday, December 10.
Conservative news commentator Collin Rugg posted about the matter on X. He used the incident to argue that the elderly senator must retire, saying, “NEW: Senator Mitch McConnell has to get physically hoisted into a waiting SUV after he took yet another fall last week. McConnell is 82 years old. Retire.”
Commenters on Rugg’s post broadly agreed, saying things like, “He should be forced to retire. He is unable to serve,” “Congress has become a retirement community,” “Who is doing his work? He is not. Retire. Otherwise we have unelected staff doing his job… a la Biden,” and “He needs a Hoyer Lift sling. My sweet mom had to have one to get in/out of bed and in/out of her wheelchair. O course, she was in a nursing home…”
Other people who posted the video chimed in as well. X political commentator Joey Marrino, for example, wrote, “Mitch McConnell is essentially a comatose corpse at this point. Why the hell is he still voting in the Senate? We get 100 Senators out of 350,000,000 people. Can we at least expect them to be mentally fit?”
A commenter on his post noted when a member of Congress was found living in a nursing home, saying, “Remember when they found that missing congresswoman living in a nursing home for four months, she wasn’t missing. But she needs to have some new roomies like Mitch and Nancy and Adam too.” Watch McConnell here:
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Other posters commented on McConnell’s health generally. For example, one commenter, quote tweeting a video of elderly Rep. Larson (D-CT) having a brain freeze moment in Congress and being unable to speak, much as McConnell has done in the past, said, “Congress is not a fucking nursing home. This goes for McConnell too.”
Similarly, back in November of 2024, one poster on X said, “Mitch McConnell is barely sentient at this point. Does he even display the seven signs of life? And yet here he is, still clinging to power, still being given power over the most important decisions that will determine the fate of the nation over the next four years.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video