Coons questions if McConnell will lead Senate GOP conference after current Congress

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) questioned Sunday whether Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would remain in his leadership post after the end of this Congress after the Kentucky Republican’s health raised concerns this week.

“I feel like he’s going to continue to be the Republican leader through the rest of this Congress. And what happens after that? I don’t know,” Coons told NBC’s Chuck Todd when asked on “Meet the Press” whether he’s confident that McConnell would continue to lead his party in the Senate.

McConnell’s health has increasingly come into question this past week after he froze at the mics during a weekly press conference midsentence. His colleagues asked if he was okay, before escorting him away briefly. He then returned to the podium a short time later to continue with the press conference, telling reporters he felt OK.

Coons expressed overall confidence in McConnell and said they spoke after the incident this past week; he said the minority leader “seemed fine.”

“Look, I talked to Minority Leader McConnell after the incident this week where he froze in a TV interview. He seemed fine,” Coons said.

Coons indicated he would not support a constitutional amendment to set age maximums for certain elected officials, in the same way there are age minimums in the constitution. He said the test should be at the ballot box.

“Look, I think the best test of whether or not someone is really capable of fulfilling their constitutional duty is an election,” Coons said when asked about a constitutional amendment. 

When Todd noted that a senator’s term is six years and a person’s health can change significantly in that period, especially after reaching a certain age, Coons said, “I don’t disagree.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) also expressed confidence in McConnell’s ability to do his job, saying in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that even though he has not spoken to McConnell about the incident, McConnell was on the Senate floor working on the defense bill this past week, and “he looked like the old Mitch McConnell.”

“My sense is he is very much still in control of that caucus, and though he certainly had a health scare, my sense is that he’s back up on his feet and he’s going to be able to lead the Republican Conference very ably going forward,” Murphy said. 

“I have a lot of disagreements with Mitch McConnell, but he has been one of the more effective leaders of the Republican conference in my lifetime. And I expect that that will probably continue at least until the end of this term,” he continued. 

McConnell became the longest-serving Senate leader this year, when he surpassed the late Sen. Mike Mansfield (D-Mont.) after 16 years leading the Senate. McConnell is up for reelection in 2026.

Updated 3:27 p.m.