Mitch McConnell using a wheelchair after falling down stairs at the Capitol

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is "fine," his office said Wednesday after he was seen using a wheelchair following a fall at the Capitol.

“Senator McConnell is fine. The lingering effects of polio in his left leg will not disrupt his regular schedule of work," a McConnell spokesman said in a statement. McConnell, 82, had polio as a child.

The spokesman added that McConnell is using a wheelchair “purely as a precautionary measure.”

Reporters saw McConnell fall down while he was walking down a small set of stairs leaving the Senate chamber on his way to a Republican caucus lunch.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said he helped McConnell up after he fell as he was walking down the stairs from the Senate floor, telling reporters: “I think he just slipped on the steps. I was right behind him and helped him get back up, and he walked on his own power to lunch.”

McConnell initially left the lunch on foot while he held on to the arm of his aide. NBC News spotted him returning to the lunchroom in a wheelchair shortly afterward. 

McConnell, who still serves in the Senate but stepped down as Senate Republican leader this year, has experienced a wave of health challenges in recent years.

He fell in December at the Capitol after a weekly lunch with Senate Republicans, which resulted in his sustaining a minor cut to the face and a wrist sprain.

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In 2023, McConnell had several episodes in which he appeared to freeze — one happened during a news conference at the Capitol that July and another happened that August while he was speaking to reporters in Kentucky. During the episode in Washington, McConnell was silent for 19 seconds. Earlier that year, McConnell was hospitalized and treated for a concussion after he tripped at a Washington hotel following an event for the McConnell-aligned super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund.

In 2019, McConnell fractured his shoulder after he tripped and fell at his home in Kentucky.

After the freezing incidents in 2023, some Republican lawmakers expressed concern about his overall health and wanted him to be more transparent about his situation.

McConnell, who chairs the Rules Committee, brushed off questions, however, about his health struggles. After the freezing incidents, he told reporters that he had planned to finish his Senate term, which expires in 2027. He has not said whether he plans to run for re-election next year.