Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell laughed off a question about his potential replacement shortly after a bizarre speech-freezing incident sparked serious concerns about his health.
McConnell, 81, abruptly stopped speaking in the middle of a sentence toward the beginning of his regular weekly press conference on Wednesday. He remained silent for around 20 seconds while staring into the distance before his Republican colleagues intervened and whisked him away.
The GOP leader returned to the podium minutes later and told reporters that he was “fine,” while failing to provide details about the state of his health or what might have caused his unusual behavior.
A reporter then asked McConnell, who has served in the Senate since 1985 and has led Republicans since 2007, whether he was considering whom he would like to serve as his replacement.
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“Do you have anybody in mind to replace you when you’re no longer the conference leader?” the reporter asked.
McConnell, of Kentucky, began to smile and chuckle in response to the question, before walking away from the podium and leaving the query unanswered.
Other Republicans standing nearby signaled that they also considered the question to be absurd by laughing alongside their leader.
McConnell was hospitalized for a concussion after suffering a fall in March. Some have speculated that his behavior at Wednesday’s press event may have been related, although there is no evidence to support the theory.
CNN’s Manu Raju tweeted that a McConnell aide said the senator was feeling “light headed” when he froze in place, while failing to elaborate on what caused the incident.
Newsweek reached out for comment to McConnell’s office via email on Wednesday.
After the press conference concluded, McConnell told reporters that President Joe Biden had “called to check up” on his condition. McConnell joked that he told the president, “I got sandbagged.”
Biden tripped over a sandbag and fell during an Air Force Academy graduation event last month. Later the same day, he told a reporter, “I got sandbagged” and pretended to be tripping as he walked away.
“Gotta watch those sandbags,” McConnell told reporters on Wednesday, while still ignoring questions about the cause of the freezing incident and whether he had seen a doctor.
While McConnell appears to have no intention of retiring soon, GOP state lawmakers in Kentucky have already taken steps to ensure that his seat remains in Republican hands if he is forced to leave office before the conclusion of a term, passing a law to mandate that his immediate replacement is also a Republican.
Republicans, who dominate the Kentucky legislature, overwhelmingly voted to override a veto of the bill from Andy Beshear, the state’s Democratic governor, in 2021. McConnell also supported the bill.