Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell froze up for a second time in two months while speaking to reporters on Wednesday.
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CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta commented on possible causes for the Republican Kentucky Senator’s stroke-like incidents.
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Dr. Gupta’s comments were shared on Thursday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning.”
On Wednesday, McConnell appeared to stare blankly when asked a question by a reporter. Seeing that the Senator was apparently unaware of his surroundings or medical state, an aide stepped to his side and reiterated the question.
According to the Daily Caller, CNN hosts were concerned that Sen. McConnell was maintaining a robust schedule while these freeze moments were ongoing.
Dr. Gupta, a neurosurgeon, said it is possible McConnell was suffering from mini seizures or experiencing issues with medications.
Dr. Gupta noted that the freezing incidents were short-lived, and were not particularly serious, but could portend a future, significant, medical event.
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The neurosurgeon explained: “What I saw, and this is I think an appropriate term here, is the term freezing. That does sort of describe this freezing of his body, freezing of his speech, freezing of his face, his hands were very clenched to the side of the lectern. One of his aides came over and tried to raise his arm, and he was pretty locked in there for about 30 seconds.”
Dr. Gupta continued: “But then as Scott [Jennings] mentions, a short time later, he seems to be more lucid again and seems to improve, and when he walks out of the room, he’s moving his arms and his legs, which is important because people think ‘is this some sort of stroke or precursor to strokes such as TIA?’ Less likely, given how quickly the recovery happens.”
“You do think of things like a seizure for example, a sort of mini-seizure that can cause these sorts of symptoms,” Dr. Gupta added. “Or even certain medications or coming off medications. People [who] have Parkinson’s, for example, when their medications start to wane off, they may have freezing episodes. But again, it comes and goes, and I think what is curious is we’ve seen it twice.”
Dr. Gupta speculated that McConnell’s aide’s calm response to the incidents indicates they are fairly common. Gupta said, “The aides that rushed to his side, they didn’t seem so sort of affected by it, almost to the point where you wonder, ‘is this something they’re more used to?’”
“If this is the first time this has happened, I’d say look, you got to get to the doctor and figure out is something going on here with the blood flow to your brain or something. They didn’t seem to react that way, which I thought was another important clue,” he concluded.
The mental and physical fitness of government representatives has been a hot topic in the news for months.
In May, Rep. Ronny Jackson, a medical doctor and former demanded that President Biden “take a cognitive test immediately, or renounce his bid for re-election in 2024.”
Others have suggested that Senators Fetterman (D-MI) and Feinstein (D-CA) should step down for health reasons.
