Thursday morning, after Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had an unfortunate incident where he was unable to speak for a few moments at a press event, CNN News Central featured a segment where they fretted about McConnell’s age despite him being as old as President Biden. They discussed this incident as it could have been related to several of McConnell’s past signs of aging, such as falls, pointing out these signs in a man the same age as Biden, whose aging CNN had always avoided talking about.
Anchor John Berman broached the topic by describing the events of the evening before, adding that CNN had learned since the events that McConnell had “fallen multiple times this year, more times than we knew about,” and asking chief Congressional correspondent Manu Raju for more information on this new reporting.
Raju responded by bringing up McConnell’s age and some of his known past health issues that could have contributed to the incident:
Yeah, I've been told by multiple sources this has happened on multiple occasions this year. Mayor McCo—me—Mitch McConnell is 81 years old, who walks with a slight limp, is a survivor of polio from his time as a child, has had issues walking for much of his life and it’s been more pronounced this year.
Then, Raju went on to describe three known instances from this year of McConnell’s growing age, including his fall in February, his concussion in March, and another fall just earlier in July. He also listed on the screen some other incidents that showed the increasing age of the senator.
Raju said that McConnell had later come out again and told the press that “he is fine, but he has not yet explained what happened yesterday exactly.”
Raju considered this incident to be very problematic for McConnell, because this obvious display of aging would, no doubt, prove him ineligible for the Senate again next term:
But no doubt questions continue to persist about the 81-year-old Republican leader. He says he's fine, but also, how long will he stay as Republican leader and as—in his seat. His term expires at the end of 2026, and he’s Republican leader until the end of this Congress, what will he do next Congress?
All of this reporting hearkened back to how the media handled the few instances of former President Trump’s aging, including urging the public that these were vitally important, declaring that these instances did not illustrate Trump’s inability to serve as much as his policies did, and mocking him for these instances.
As the latter one of these articles aptly pointed out, “the public arguably has a right to know about the president’s health.” This point was very interesting, considering how adverse the media had been to reporting about President Biden’s many falls and other aging signs. As a WTRF article pointed out, “Biden has fallen or tripped at least eight times since winning the 2020 election” (7 times in public and once at home). A New York Post article described how these instances could negatively affect the Democratic Party and their popularity.
Most other news media sites were not so willing to provide this information, at best reporting on “How Biden's campaign is addressing his age” with shorter flights of steps and note cards or about he was “fine” after he “got ‘sandbagged’” at his recent fall after giving a speech at the Air Force Academy. Biden had even criticized Trump’s instances of aging signs, as though he had not had the same (and worse) problems.
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Transcript of the segment below (click Expand):
CNN News Central
7/27/23
9:06:01 AM ET
JOHN BERMAN: New overnight, CNN has learned that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has fallen multiple times this year, more times than we knew about. This new reporting comes after McConnell froze mid-sentence during his weekly news conference.
CNN chief Congressional correspondent Manu Raju is on the Hill this morning with this new reporting. Manu, what are you learning?
MANU RAJU: Yeah, I've been told by multiple sources this has happened on multiple occasions this year. Mayor McCo—me—Mitch McConnell is 81 years old, who walks with a slight limp, is a survivor of polio from his time as a child, has had issues walking for much of his life and it’s been more pronounced this year.
It has been at least three instances that we know of this year through our reporting and some—and the one very public one that occurred back in March when he fell and he hit his head, suffered a concussion, broke some ribs, was out for the Senate for six weeks.
But there are two other incidents that happened as well. One from—in February when he was traveling overseas with a U.S. delegation to meet with the president of Finland. As he was getting out of his car walking, it was a bit of a snowy day, I was told, he slipped and fell. He was not injured, he walked hims—he brushed himself off, he didn't seek any immediate medical attention there, and continued on with his meeting.
And then we—the major incident that I referred to in March that we know about, and then later, the—another one that occurred just this month, or earlier this month, when he was getting off the plane at Reagan National airport. He was walking off the—the plane and he did s—fall as well, I am told. Now, tha—after that incident, he returned to the Capitol and continued his work day.
Now, this all came before the incident we saw yesterday, in which Senator McConnell was at his press conference, made some remarks and then suddenly froze for some time. And then came back and later answered questions, including one from myself, asking him what happened there.
He said that he is fine. He later told reporters again he is fine, but he has not yet explained what happened yesterday exactly, what was the actual root cause of the reason why he froze, and whether it had anything to do with that fall from earlier this year, or any other lingering health issues. The—his office had said that he had felt light-headed, which is the reason why he stepped aside at yesterday's press conference.
But no doubt questions continue to persist about the 81-year-old Republican leader. He says he's fine, but also, how long will he stay as Republican leader and as—in his seat. His term expires at the end of 2026, and he’s Republican leader until the end of this Congress, what will he do next Congress? John.
BERMAN: And look, I know there's concern for the health of Senator McConnell well outside politics as well. People just wanna make sure he's doing okay.
(…)
