In the middle of fielding a question about his plans to run for an eighth senate term, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell from Kentucky once again appeared to freeze up in a second such incident this summer.
After a reporter asked the 81-year-old senator if he had plans to run for another six-year term in 2026, McConnell briefly mumbled, “Oh, that’s a …” before going silent, as shown in this video by WLWT. After a few seconds of not responding, a staff member came to his aid and asked if the senator had heard the question, which the staffer repeated.
“Did you hear the question, Senator? Running for re-election in 2026?” the aide asked. McConnell responded, “Yes,” but remained silent for several more seconds, simply staring ahead.
As the senator remained unresponsive, the aide announced, “All right, I’m sorry, you all. We’re going to need a minute.”
The staffer then called over another person, who appeared to be able to snap the senator out of his trance enough to resume the press conference.
The original aide then requested that if someone else had a question for the senator, please speak up.
She then repeated the next question to the senator into his ear, which was about Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
“Well, I think the governor’s race is going to be very close,” said the senator, appearing to have recovered. But as he continued elaborating on the governor’s race in Kentucky, his voice began to quiver and trail off.
McConnell fielded one more question, which was about President Trump and whether the senator would support him after the latest indictment. His aide simplified the question when she repeated it to the senator: “It’s a question about Trump.”
“I’m not going to comment about the presidential race,” said the senator, adding a bit more before the staff member ended the press conference and ushered the senator away from the podium.
This was the second time Sen. McConnell became nonresponsive while taking questions from the press. In late July, the senator stopped speaking mid-sentence and remained silent for about 30 seconds while surrounded by increasingly concerned colleagues, as reported at the time by The Dallas Express.
