Washington, March 9 : US Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell has been hospitalised after he tripped at a Washington D.C., hotel during a private dinner, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Republican confirmed.

McConnell was attending a private dinner at a local hotel when he tripped. He was admitted to a hospital for treatment, spokesman Doug Andres said. He is one of the most senior lawmakers in the Republican Party, now serving as Senate Minority leader. The incident was first reported by the website Punchbowl News. 

Mitch McConnell: The Senate Republican leader
Addison Mitchell McConnell is an American politician and retired attorney serving his seventh term as the senior US senator from Kentucky. McConnell is the Senate leader of the Republican Party, having served as minority leader since 2021 and previously from 2007 to 2015, and as majority leader from 2015 to 2021. 

He worked to withhold Republican support for major presidential initiatives during the Barack Obama administration, having made frequent use of the filibuster and blocked many of President Obama's judicial nominees, including Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.

In August 2019, the GOP leader, a survivor of childhood polio, tripped and fell at his home in Kentucky, suffering a shoulder fracture. At the time, he underwent surgery to repair the fracture in his shoulder.

During the Trump administration, McConnell played a pivotal role in the passing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts of 2017. He is also responsible for the Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protected Act in 2018, the First Step Act and confirmed a record number of federal appeals court judges during a president’s first two years. 

He also invoked the ‘nuclear option’ to eliminate the 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster for Supreme Court nominations, after his predecessor Harry Reid had previously eliminated the filibuster for all other presidential nominations. 

While McConnell supported many of Trump's domestic and foreign policies, he was critical of Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and despite voting to acquit Trump on his second impeachment trial for reasons related to the constitutionality of impeaching a former president, he deemed Trump "practically and morally responsible" for the January 6 United States Capitol attack.