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McConnell's return raises a question we can't ignore

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20.09.2026

Sen. Mitch McConnell is back at the U.S. Capitol after a three-month absence for health problems.

The former Senate majority leader has been gone so long that his return set off a media frenzy, and the video footage is worrying. In a viral clip from Sept. 14, reporters asked the longtime Kentucky Republican how he was feeling. McConnell, 84, offered a wave and a thumbs-up, but said nothing.

In a video of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee's Sept. 16 meeting to advance the farm bill, McConnell appears a bit dazed and confused. The senator was about to vote for the bill when a Republican colleague tried to tell him to vote "no." He voted for it anyway, and posted on social media about its passage.

The clips show McConnell still recovering, and they are sad to see. The longest serving Senate party leader in U.S. history has served in the Senate for more than four decades, but he's been absent a quarter of the year and doesn't appear entirely healthy or lucid. He should be home resting with a cup of tea and a good book, not on Capitol Hill casting a vote on a bill he doesn't seem to understand. His case and others like it raise the question of whether Congress should impose age or health limits on the men and women who represent Americans.

Mitch McConnell isn't the only absent representative

After months........

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