Ben Domenech

Will Senator Mitch McConnell step down after his latest freezing episode?

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Credit: Getty images)

Senator Mitch McConnell appeared to have another elderly moment in Kentucky following an event yesterday, where a question about whether he would run for re-election in 2026 left him silent as the cameras tracked the awkward scene.

It is obviously not the first time that this has happened for McConnell — and the eighty-one-year-old deserves the grace that we would grant to anyone struggling with the inevitability of age. But this is also a moment that presents a challenge for the Republican party, an effort that is larger than just one man (despite what diehard fans of Donald Trump would sometimes have you believe), and one that Senate Minority Leader McConnell will have to consider in the coming days.

The simple fact is this: in his lucid moments, which is the case more often than not, according to multiple Senate staffers, McConnell is just a slower version of his younger self. Speaking off the cuff to the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce minutes

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