Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell tripped and fell in a Senate building while being questioned by an activist on Thursday, Oct. 16.
According to reports, a young woman representing the climate-focused Sunrise Movement approached the 83-year-old senator in a hallway of the Russell Senate Office Building and introduced herself.
In a widely circulated video, the woman walks beside McConnell and another man wearing an earpiece as she asks whether the Republican lawmaker supports ICE “taking working people off the streets and kidnapping them,” referring to recent immigration raids in cities such as Chicago and Portland that have prompted criticism over violent arrests and wrongful detainments.
McConnell, who appeared to move with a stiff gait and leaned on the man next to him for support, is seen stumbling and falling to the ground toward the end of her question, landing on his left side.
Two people, including a Capitol Police officer, quickly helped him back to his feet. McConnell waved briefly at the camera before being guided away.
Sunrise Movement executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay criticized the moment in a statement, saying, “Mitch McConnell couldn’t even answer a simple question without falling down, and it’s certainly not the first time he hasn’t been able to answer young people.” She added that “both parties are run by out-of-touch octogenarians who have been in politics for longer than we’ve been alive. Their incompetence and need to cling to power aren’t just embarrassing; they’re costly, and the American people are paying the price.”
McConnell’s office has not publicly commented on the incident.
The longtime Kentucky senator, who stepped down last year as leader of the Republican Senate Conference after 18 years, has faced ongoing scrutiny over his health. Thursday’s fall marks at least his third such incident since December.
In 2023, McConnell alarmed colleagues when he froze mid-sentence during a Capitol press conference, staring ahead silently for several seconds before being escorted away. The episode came months after he was hospitalized for five days with a concussion and rib fracture following another fall. He later told reporters he was doing “fine.”
A similar freezing incident occurred one month later in Kentucky, when McConnell paused after being asked about plans to run for reelection in 2026.
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Following that episode, the Senate’s attending physician conducted neurological tests, including MRI imaging and an EEG, and found “no evidence” of seizure or stroke. The doctor suggested lingering concussion effects and dehydration could have contributed to occasional lightheadedness.
Some of McConnell’s Republican colleagues, including fellow Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, have questioned those conclusions. Paul, a physician, told The Hill that the findings were “not believable,” adding, “When you get dehydrated, you don’t have moments where your eyes look in the distance with a vacant look and you’re sort of basically unconscious with your eyes open. That is not a symptom of dehydration.”
“What’s occurring from what I’ve seen, it’s a neurological event,” Paul said.
McConnell’s current Senate term runs through January 2027.
