Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., returned to the Capitol on Monday after a three-month absence following a fall that left him hospitalized and out of public view for 92 days.
McConnell said he has assured Senate Majority Leader John Thune that he will “do my best to be present for tough votes when our Conference needs me.”
“Today, I’ll cast my first Senate vote since I took a bad fall back in June,” the McConnell said in a statement. “I’m really looking forward to being back on the Senate floor and seeing my colleagues.”
The appearance is the first time the 84-year-old former Senate Republican leader had been seen publicly since he was hospitalized June 14, ending months of questions about his condition and whether he would be able to return before his final term expires in January.
McConnell had not cast a Senate vote since June 11 and missed dozens of votes during his absence. His return comes as senators reconvene Monday following a five-week summer recess.
McConnell, considered a master of legislative rules, was hospitalized after falling at his Washington home on June 14. He later said the fall briefly knocked him unconscious but that doctors determined he had not suffered a heart attack, stroke or concussion and had not broken any bones. He subsequently developed what his office described as a mild case of pneumonia.
After nearly a month in the hospital, McConnell said in July that he had been transferred to a rehabilitation center. He remained there for more than three weeks before announcing Aug. 6 that he had been discharged and would continue an “intensive regimen of physical therapy” from home.
But McConnell’s prolonged absence from public view fueled mounting scrutiny over his health.
His office released written statements and two photos of McConnell during his recovery, including one showing him alongside his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, holding a newspaper. Until Monday, however, no public video or audio of the senator had been released since his hospitalization.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, escalated that pressure in July, calling on McConnell to “provide proof of your capacity to serve, or resign.” Beshear suggested McConnell could release a short video or speak with a Kentucky television or radio station and asked Senate Majority Leader John Thune to investigate his condition if he failed to demonstrate that he could continue serving.
McConnell acknowledged Monday that his recovery has been “a long and often frustrating process” and said the lingering effects of childhood polio have complicated it. He said he is “still not quite back to 100%” and will continue physical therapy on the advice of his doctors.
McConnell’s return also restores another available vote for Republicans, who hold a 53-47 Senate majority.
The Kentucky Republican is serving the final months of a Senate career that has spanned more than four decades. McConnell announced last year that he would not seek an eighth term, setting up his departure from the Senate in January.
His tenure has helped reshape the federal judiciary and the modern Republican Party. As majority leader, McConnell blocked consideration of President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland in 2016 and later oversaw the confirmation of all three of President Donald Trump’s first-term Supreme Court nominees.