McConnell, 81, chuckled and said, “Oh, that’s, uhh —” and stopped speaking. After about seven seconds, an aide approached and asked the senator if he had heard the question.
McConnell stared straight ahead, and the aide asked reporters to give them a minute.
Another aide then walked over and spoke to McConnell, who signaled that he was fine. McConnell then cleared his throat, said “Okay,” and continued to take questions. His answers were stilted.
In total, the minority leader was silent for more than 20 seconds.
“Leader McConnell felt momentarily lightheaded and paused during his press conference today,” a spokesman for McConnell said in a statement afterward.
An aide to the senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private details, said McConnell would consult a doctor before his next event “as a prudential measure.”
McConnell spoke to several senators on his leadership team after the Wednesday afternoon incident. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 2 in GOP leadership, said that McConnell seemed like his usual self and in “good spirits,” according to a Thune aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Wednesday evening, McConnell appeared with Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) in Louisville at a “private event” for Banks’s Senate campaign. “Enjoyed a wide-ranging discussion with @LeaderMcConnell this evening about the future of our country. I look forward to working with him on issues confronting our bordering states,” Banks later said in a message on X, formerly Twitter.
McConnell’s staff also cited lightheadedness after he froze for about 20 seconds during opening remarks at a Senate leadership news conference in July. Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who were at his side that day, asked whether he was all right, but McConnell did not respond.
Barrasso suggested that McConnell take a break and guided him away. The minority leader returned several minutes later and after the news conference was asked by reporters what had happened. He said simply that he was “fine.”
On Wednesday, as President Biden talked about the wildfires in Maui and the hurricane pounding Florida and other parts of the Southeast, he said he had just heard about the McConnell incident.
“Mitch is a friend, as you know, not a joke,” Biden said. “We have disagreements politically. But he’s a good friend, and so I’m going to try to get in touch with him later this afternoon.”
Kentucky law would require Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, to appoint a Republican successor if McConnell were to leave office. But Beshear declined to answer a question this month about whether he would do so, saying there was no indication McConnell would step down.
“There’s not going to be a vacancy,” he told Politico. “That would be total speculation.”
McConnell fell and suffered a concussion and broken rib during a private dinner at a Washington hotel in early March. He was absent from the Senate for nearly six weeks as he recovered. He returned to work in April.
After McConnell froze in July, four neurologists who reviewed footage of the incident told The Washington Post the situation could have been caused by heat-exacerbated dehydration, a near-fainting episode, a partial seizure or a stroke. One said it could also indicate an underlying neurological disorder, although the specialists emphasized they could not offer solid conclusions without examining McConnell.
The Post reported in July that McConnell had fallen two other times this year, in Helsinki in February and while leaving a plane at Reagan National Airport in July.
An aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said McConnell sometimes uses a wheelchair in crowded areas such as airports, The Post previously reported.
Mariana Alfaro, Maegan Vazquez and Amy B Wang contributed to this report.