Republican Senator Mitch McConnell returned to the US Capitol after a three-month absence spent recuperating from a fall in his Washington home that had raised questions about his fitness to serve in Congress.
"I must admit. After two years of - decades, actually - dodging your questions, I wasn't sure how many of you would be here today. But I'm glad to see you. Time to get back to work, finish the job for this Congress," the 84-year-old Kentucky Republican told reporters from a wheelchair outside the Senate chamber.
According to Reuters, looking frail and speaking in a voice that sometimes faltered, McConnell said he was determined to work to pass new farm legislation, aid US relations with NATO and counter Russian aggression in Ukraine.
He ignored a reporter who asked if he intended to serve out the remainder of his Senate term, which ends in January. He then entered the chamber to vote for a Republican judicial nominee.
A longtime Republican Party leader who in 2025 announced his plan to retire from the Senate after the 2026 midterms, McConnell had been out of public view since mid-June, when he was taken from his home to a hospital in the Washington area for reasons that went undisclosed for weeks.
Earlier on Monday, McConnell issued a statement acknowledging that he was "not quite back to 100%" but adding that he had assured Senate Majority Leader John Thune that he would "do my best to be present for tough votes."
McConnell later said he suffered a fall that left him briefly unconscious. While hospitalized, he developed pneumonia and was treated with antibiotics, according to a separate statement that McConnell's office attributed to the attending physician. He was released from a rehabilitation center in early August.
The episode marked the latest in a series of health problems that have raised concerns about McConnell's capacity to serve in the Senate, an institution long known for the advanced age of its members.
