WASHINGTON — Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell has been making phone calls from his hospital bed to Republican allies to dispel internet rumors that he’s “brain dead” after 911 dispatch calls revealed the 84-year-old was rushed off “unconscious” from his DC home in an ambulance last month.
The longest-serving Senate leader of either party reached out to his successor, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) as well as ex-adviser and current CNN contributor Scott Jennings following X posts from right-wing firebrand Laura Loomer about an alleged “cover up” of McConnell’s failing health.
“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” a spokesperson for his office said in a statement. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”
McConnell’s Senate colleagues issued statements that the retiring Republican was alert — and chatty.
“Leader Thune spoke with Sen. McConnell yesterday by phone,” a spokesperson for the majority leader’s office said. “They had a lengthy and substantive conversation that covered a variety of topics, including national security.”
“Senator Barrasso and Senator McConnell had a lengthy conversation early this afternoon. Their phone call lasted roughly 20 minutes,” a spokesperson for the Republican majority whip also said. “Senator McConnell was fully engaged and is eager to get back to the Senate.”
Jennings added in an X Post that on Tuesday he also “talked for just shy of 20 minutes” with his former boss “about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR [Theodore Roosevelt] Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history. I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible.”
But not all of McConnell’s Republican colleagues have been briefed. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said Tuesday: “Many of us aren’t speaking about Mitch McConnell’s condition because we know nothing about his condition.”
Republicans’ 53-47 majority wouldn’t be imperiled should he be unable to finish his term in January 2026, since Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear wouldn’t be able to choose a replacement candidate. Instead, a special election would take place.
Independent journalist Desireé Townsend was the first to uncover the EMS audio of McConnell being taken to George Washington University Hospital on June 14 — after he was found “unconscious” shortly before 9 a.m.
Dispatchers on the audio discussed that there was “CPR in progress” for a “cardiac arrest” at McConnell’s residence and referenced medical personnel in an ALS, or Advanced Life Support, ambulance had been sent to the home.
The senator’s wife, Elaine Chao, was in China at the time, a spokesperson told Fox News Digital. Chao, who served as transportation secretary during Trump’s first term, has since returned to the US.
“The secretary was on a long-planned trip in China to support her family’s philanthropic endeavors,” the rep said. “During the trip, she met with a number of people, including the U.S. ambassador. The Senator’s health did not warrant an immediate return to the U.S.”
Right-wing firebrand Laura Loomer also prompted frenzied speculation after posting Monday on X: “High level source close to the White House tells me ‘Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead. He’s not coming back.’”
On Tuesday, Loomer suggested that McConnell’s staff was keeping a lid on official communications “because the Senators want to F–k Trump and not pass the Save America Act,” the president’s signature voter ID bill.
“Mitch McConnell is brain dead and hooked up to machines!!! He is 84 years old and was found unconscious and needed to be resuscitated,” she added.
“Mitch McConnell fell in October of 2025 and could barely speak when he fell. Now we are supposed to believe that he’s calling people from his hospital room having elaborate conversations about philosophy and foreign policy? Are you high on Hunter Biden’s crack?”
McConnell suffered freeze-ups in public — as well as falls, one of which left him concussed and with a cracked rib in early 2023 — before announcing in February 2025 that he would not seek re-election.
He had been briefly hospitalized in February and treated for flu-like symptoms. Since then, he’d often been seen on Capitol Hill being pushed around in a wheelchair.
Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) won a GOP primary election earlier this year to replace McConnell in a state that went for Trump in 2024 by more than 30 percentage points.
McConnell was first elected to the upper chamber in 1984 and served as Senate Republican leader from 2007 until 2024, when he announced that he’d be stepping down from the position after the presidential election.
The only senators older than the Kentucky Republican are Senate president pro tempore Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who is 92 years old, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is also 84 years old.
