Mitch McConnell Returns to Senate After 40-Day Absence

The GOP leader, whose gait has long borne the traces of childhood polio, ambled to the floor flanked with his security detail in front and behind him and an aide on either side. He didn’t respond to greetings or questions, but walked to the entrance of the Senate and grabbed on to the handrail, as he has for years, and climbed up a few stairs to the chamber. 

He was last in the Capitol for a legislative session on March 8, shortly before he tripped and hit his head at a dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Washington, D.C., formerly the Trump International Hotel, where he was attending an event organized on behalf of a fund that raises money to support GOP Senate candidates. 

“I want to thank all my colleagues for their warm wishes shared over the past few weeks,” Mr. McConnell said on the Senate floor. Alluding to his fall, Mr. McConnell joked that “this wasn’t the first time that being hardheaded has served me very well.” 

His remarks lasted roughly three minutes, compared with the 10 minutes that are common for his daily opening remarks, and centered primarily on calling on the White House and its Democratic allies in Congress to negotiate a deal to raise the U.S. borrowing limit. His voice sounded deeper and his words more deliberate than usual. 

Mr. McConnell’s absence opened up a quiet conversation among Republicans about who would succeed him as party leader in the Senate whenever he does step down from the job. Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.) is currently the party whip, making him the No. 2 Senate Republican; before that, Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) had held the same position. Both men are seen as possible successors when Mr. McConnell steps down.

But no Republicans had indicated that they were planning to force a conversation about new leadership. Mr. McConnell, 81 years old, is the longest-serving leader of a Senate party in U.S. history and the fourth-oldest member of the Senate. He has been the Senate’s top Republican since 2007 and served as Senate Majority Leader from 2015 to 2021. Both Democrats and Republicans had been respectful of Mr. McConnell during his absence. 

“It’s great to have him back here in this chamber,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said of Mr. McConnell during his opening remarks. “We’re all happy to see he’s recovering well.” Mr. Schumer also welcomed back Sen. John Fetterman

Meanwhile, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), the oldest senator at 89 years old, remains absent as she recovers at home following a bout of shingles. At an early afternoon news conference, Mr. Schumer said he hadn’t yet spoken to Mr. McConnell about whether the Senate would temporarily replace Ms. Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee so that Democrats could resume approving judicial nominees through the committee and send them to the Senate floor for confirmation votes.

At least two Republicans—Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee—have said that they would block Mr. Schumer from getting the unanimous consent of all senators to replace Ms. Feinstein on the committee. That would leave Mr. Schumer needing to line up 60 of 100 Senate votes to break an expected Republican filibuster. It isn’t clear that Mr. Schumer—who now has 50 votes compared with 49 for Republicans in Ms. Feinstein’s absence—could line up those votes.

Write to Siobhan Hughes at [email protected]