Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters he was “fine” after freezing during his weekly news conference Wednesday and was briefly escorted away.
McConnell stopped speaking in the middle of remarks during the regularly scheduled news conference on Capitol Hill. He took a roughly 30-second pause, during which his colleagues crowded around him, quietly questioning whether he was okay.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) then took his arm and whispered to him, “Hey Mitch, anything else you want to say? Or should we just go back to your office? Do you want to say anything else to the press?”
When he didn’t respond he was led away by an aide toward his office.
The 81-year-old returned to the news conference about 10 minutes later, at which point reporters asked him if the episode was related to a concussion he suffered during a fall earlier this year that had led to a six-week absence from Congress.
“No, I’m fine,” McConnell responded.
A McConnell aide told CNN that the Senator “felt light headed and stepped away for a moment,” adding, “He came back to handle Q and A, which as everyone observed was sharp.”
The episode can be viewed here.
