Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he’s fully recovered from health issues that led him to freeze in public and he prodded House GOP members to agree on a new speaker to end the paralysis of the U.S. legislative branch.
Questions about the 81-year-old McConnell’s health have lingered since he suffered a serious fall at a political fundraiser in March, then abruptly halted speaking twice within two months at events.
I’m completely recovered, and I’m just fine, he said in an interview airing Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation. I’m in good shape, completely recovered and back on the job.
While Democrats are in control of the U.S. Senate, Congress has been hamstrung for almost three weeks by a speakership vacancy in the Republican-led House, where a group of right-wing dissidents instigated the ouster of Kevin McCarthy. Two other candidates failed to win enough support and new candidacies are due by noon Sunday.
It does send a poor message to our allies and our enemies around the world, McConnell said on Fox News Sunday. And we also have work to do. We have appropriation bills to pass. We have a supplemental to deal with.