WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senator Republican leader Mitch McConnell fell at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, sustaining minor injuries, but was cleared to resume work, his office said in a statement.
McConnell, 82, is due to step down as the party's leader in the chamber next month, but plans to serve out the remaining two years of his term in office, despite a series of health scares last year that included two instances of freezing up in public while speaking.
"Leader McConnell tripped following lunch. He sustained a minor cut to the face and sprained his wrist," a McConnell spokesperson said. "He has been cleared to resume his schedule."
A team of medical technicians and doctors entered McConnell's office with an empty wheelchair shortly before 2 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT).
Two additional medical technicians later entered his office. But all had departed within an hour.
"He is fine, he's in his office," said Senator John Thune, who will succeed McConnell as the party's leader when it takes a 53-47 Senate majority on Jan. 3.
One lawmaker said he believed McConnell fell after attending a Republican policy lunch near the Senate chamber while en route to a weekly party leadership press conference.
McConnell was away from the Senate for weeks in 2023 after tripping at a Washington dinner, resulting in a hospital stay for treatment of a concussion and minor rib fracture. Twice later that year he froze up in public while speaking.
McConnell served as Senate majority leader from 2015 to 2021 and as Senate minority leader since then.
McConnell, who has represented Kentucky in the Senate since 1985 and has been his party's leader since 2007, gleefully embraced the nickname "Grim Reaper" for his willingness to use the levers of power to stonewall Democratic goals.
McConnell played an outsized role in helping President-elect Donald Trump during his first term in office cement a 6-3 conservative majority in the Supreme Court, paving the way for landmark rulings cheered by conservatives ending the recognition of a constitutional right to abortion and expanding gun rights.
He has a complicated relationship with Trump, having condemned the then-president's actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol, but also endorsing his re-election bid.