Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell moved behind the scenes to reassure his allies and donors he can do his job after he froze for the second time in as many months in public – even as questions persist over how long the 81-year-old Kentuckian will stay as Republican leader.

McConnell, who has served for 16 years as the GOP leader, the longest of any Senate leader in history, has repeatedly made clear he’s staying in his job until the end of next year when the 118th Congress ends – something his confidantes say hasn’t changed even after his recent health scares.

But McConnell has consistently sidestepped questions about whether he would run for leader in the next Congress, which begins in 2025.

Following a recent concussion after falling and hitting his head in March, coupled with his two public frozen moments, Republican senators and aides told CNN they are doubtful he will try to run for the job again – potentially opening up the GOP leadership role for the first time since McConnell took the reins in 2007.

  • @aidanM
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    -1210 months ago

    It was a memory test, IIRC he was talking about the results because of accusations of dementia before he took the test.

    • @MrJameGumb
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      1310 months ago

      Yes, I believe the issue was that he seemed to be saying “look, I don’t have full on dementia and that proves definitively that I’m fit to lead an entire country”

      He was really setting the bar pretty high there

      • @aidanM
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        -110 months ago

        I mean yeah ideally the bar would be pretty high to depose an elected office undemocratically.