Mitch McConnell blames childhood polio diagnosis: ‘He does not look good, man’

Longtime Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell has returned to the U.S. Senate after nearly three months away following a June fall and a lengthy recovery that was accompanied by almost complete silence.

While the 84-year-old admits he’s “not quite back to 100%,” it would appear the reality is much worse than simply being shy of operating at full capacity.

“Today, I’ll cast my first Senate vote since I took a bad fall back in June. I’m really looking forward to being back on the Senate floor and seeing my colleagues,” McConnell wrote in a post on X.

“My recovery has been a long and often frustrating process, and the lingering effects of childhood polio haven’t made it any easier. I’m still not quite back to 100%, but I’ve assured Leader Thune that, as I continue with physical therapy on the advice of my doctors, I will do my best to be present for tough votes when our Conference needs me,” he added.

“The fact that we have a guy who’s basically leadership in the Senate — he’s still very powerful there — talking about how he had polio as a kid, I mean,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere says, “it’s incredible.”

“He still has that residual cough from bubonic plague; it’s really something,” co-host Dave Landau jokes.

In a video from his return to the Senate, McConnell is shown staring blankly ahead at the back of a seat in a van. When reporters ask how he’s feeling, he continues to stare straight ahead, mouth slightly agape, without answering.

“He does not look good, man. This sucks,” Stu says.

“He looks like he’s about to play the piano with the band at Chuck E. Cheese,” Dave agrees. “There’s not a good way for this to end. Nothing says I’m going to do a competent vote like I took a bad fall in June and you haven’t seen me in three months.”

While the situation is notably strange, Stu points out that “mocking old people is not what [he’s] trying to do here.”

“This sucks, it sucks to get old, it sucks to go through this. The guy fell down. He’s out of commission for months and months and months and months. Quite clearly is out of it,” he says.

“But this is not a new story, Dave,” he continues. “The guy froze in front of cameras multiple times years ago. And at that point, even when he was in Senate leadership … I said at the time he should step down, and I think most sane people did.”

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