Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said on Thursday that he had been discharged from a rehabilitation facility after a nearly eight-week medical absence, announcing in a statement that he would continue recovering at home as the Senate takes its scheduled August recess.
“On the advice of my doctors, I’ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I’ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement.
A spokesman for Mr. McConnell did not say whether the senator would return to the Senate when the chamber, which is scheduled to begin a five-week break starting Monday, returns to session in September.
Mr. McConnell’s absence from Congress began in June when he was hospitalized after falling unconscious at his home. In July, Mr. McConnell, 84, broke a long silence by saying he had suffered from a fall and a “mild” case of pneumonia, and had since been transferred to a rehabilitation center to continue his recovery.
The episode was just the latest in a string of medical issues for Mr. McConnell, who relinquished his leadership role in 2024 and announced last year that he would retire at the end of his seventh term in January 2027. It has fueled mounting public anger about a Congress dominated by elderly lawmakers who have served for decades, at a time when many voters say that the officials leading the country are simply too old.
Mr. McConnell’s long delay in providing an explanation for his absence and failure to provide any detail about his health, along with his disappearance from public view, only amplified the scrutiny and criticism, and fed conspiracy theories about his condition.
Mr. McConnell had attached photos of him and his wife, Elaine Chao, a former labor and transportation secretary, to his first statement as well as a second he released in late July to announce he had not been “medically cleared” to return to work. But skeptics asserted without evidence that the pictures were generated by artificial intelligence and demanded video of the senator alive and conscious.
With both statements, Mr. McConnell had also provided comments from the Office of the Attending Physician, the on-site doctor for members of Congress at the Capitol, which said the senator’s bout with childhood polio had affected both his mobility and recovery.
The Kentucky Republican’s health has been declining visibly since at least 2023, when he had a serious fall and was hospitalized with a concussion. Later that year, he had a series of episodes in which he seemed to freeze in public, unable to speak.
Since his hospitalization, Mr. McConnell has faced calls, including from Gov. Andy Beshear, Democrat of Kentucky, to either resign immediately or release proof that he is fit to continue serving. But the senator has resisted such public pressure.
Mr. McConnell’s extended leave has taken a toll on Republicans’ slim majority in the Senate, which has been on full display in recent days. His lack of attendance has presented challenges on the Senate Appropriations Committee, on which he serves and where his vote is critical in advancing spending legislation needed to keep the government funded.
On Thursday, his absence deprived Republicans on the Senate Agriculture Committee of the votes they needed to approve this year’s farm bill over solid Democratic opposition. The panel instead failed to advance the measure and will have to return to it in the fall.
