The claim: No one called for McConnell to step down after freezing on camera
A July 5 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) from the liberal group Occupy Democrats includes two pictures of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell standing behind a podium.
“Reminder that Mitch McConnell literally froze, on camera, unable to speak, twice, and no one asked him to step down,” reads on-screen text included in the post.
It was liked more than 35,000 times in six days. Other versions of the claim spread widely on Facebook and X, formerly Twitter.
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Our rating: False
Numerous Republican leaders, including former President Donald Trump, said McConnell should step down after he froze while talking to reporters twice in 2023.
Marjorie Taylor Greene said McConnell ‘not fit for office’
McConnell, who is 82, abruptly stopped speaking and stood in silence for several moments while addressing reporters twice in the summer of 2023. His office later released a physician’s letter that said there was “no evidence” the episodes were caused by a stroke or seizure disorder, the Associated Press reported.
The Occupy Democrats claim came after President Joe Biden similarly froze during a debate with Trump in June. There were numerous calls in the following weeks for Biden to suspend his re-election bid.
But it’s not true that there were no calls for McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, to do the same in 2023.
Trump said in a Breitbart News interview, for example, that Republicans “have to have” a different Senate leader after the incidents.
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a clip of McConnell’s second freeze on X, saying he and other elected officials were “not fit for office, and it’s time to be serious about it.”
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There were also calls to step down from McConnell’s home state of Kentucky.
The senator was heckled with chants to retire during an August speech in Fancy Farm, Kentucky, and the chair of the Jessamine County Republican Party told The Washington Post his chapter believed McConnell should leave his leadership role following his second freezing episode later that month.
Voices in conservative media echoed those calls.
Political commentator Bill O’Reilly said McConnell should “resign tomorrow” in an August interview with NewsNation, for instance, and the editorial board of the National Review wrote that though McConnell had a “long, impressive run,” he needed to “step aside from leadership.”
McConnell announced in February that he would step down as minority leader in November.
USA TODAY has debunked an array of claims from Occupy Democrats, including false assertions that Trump and his team claimed there were 35,000 attendees at his May 23 rally in the Bronx, that Trump told Time Magazine he’d force government monitoring on “every pregnant woman” if re-elected and that 52 of 53 Republican senators voted to let Trump block a Ukraine arms sale in 2020.
USA TODAY reached out to several users who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Check Your Fact also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
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USA TODAY, Aug. 7, 2023, ‘Retire’: Mitch McConnell booed, heckled during speech in Kentucky after health scare
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National Review, Aug. 31, 2023, Mitch McConnell Needs to Step Aside
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NewsNation, Aug. 31, 2023, Mitch McConnell should resign ‘tomorrow,’ Bill O’Reilly says
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The Washington Post, Aug. 31, 2023, McConnell tries to tamp down health concerns after second incident
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Marjorie Taylor Greene, Aug. 30, 2023, X post
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Breitbart News, July 30, 2023, Exclusive video – Trump: McConnell Health Problems ‘Sad,’ He Should Step Down as ‘We Have to Have’ New GOP Leader in Senate
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: False claim of no calls for McConnell to step down | Fact check
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