“Occasional lightheadedness is not uncommon in concussion recovery and can also be expected as a result of dehydration.”
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The statement appears to be the first time a clear link has been drawn between McConnell’s freezing episodes and the impact of the fall he had at a dinner in March, which resulted in him being hospitalised for days and treated for concussion and a rib fracture.
The latest scare has triggered further questions about his health and his political future.
There are three Republican senators — known in Washington as “the three Johns” — who could replace McConnell as the leader of their party in the upper chamber of Congress.
They are 62-year old South Dakota Senator John Thune (the No. 2 Republican in the Senate); 71-year-old Senator John Cornyn (a former Texas attorney General); and Senator John Barrasso, 71 (an orthopedic surgeon from Wyoming).
McConnell’s ongoing medical problems could also undermine the Republicans’ plan to make Biden’s age and mental capacity a central part of their argument against him at next year’s presidential election.
Then US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley with Donald Trump in the White House in 2018.Credit: AP
Biden, 80, is already the oldest president in US history and will be 86 by the end of his second term if he wins re-election next November.
Some in the party have already called for broader political renewal in Washington. Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, for instance, has made regeneration a feature of her campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
“America is not past our prime – it’s just that our politicians are past theirs,” the 51-year-old declared when she launched her candidacy for the presidency earlier this year.
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“In the America I see, the permanent politician will finally retire. We’ll have term limits for Congress. And mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old.”
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who is also vying for the nomination, has used his status as a 38-year-old candidate to position himself a young political outsider and anti-woke crusader in the mould of Trump, who is 77.
Part of the issue is that there are no term limits in Congress: Senators are elected for six-year terms and members of the House of Representatives are elected for two.