Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said to reporters that he told President Joe Biden he was "sandbagged" after appearing to freeze up during a press conference Wednesday.
"The president called to check on me," McConnell said. "I told him I got sandbagged."
McConnell, 81, was referring to Biden joking after tripping over a sandbag while leaving the stage at the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation exercises in Colorado Springs, Colorado, June 1.
"I was sandbagged," Biden joked after arriving back at the White House.
The report said two sandbags were on the stage to support the teleprompter Biden used during his remarks but were not taken away after the device was removed from the area.
Biden, 80, has had questions arise about his fitness to serve another four-year term in the Oval Office.
On Wednesday, McConnell stopped his sentence during a press conference and appeared to freeze up for several seconds before being escorted from the podium by an aide and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo.
The report said he returned to the press conference and answered questions after resting in his office for several minutes.
The octogenarian senator missed almost six weeks in the Senate earlier this year while recovering from a fall and hitting his head at a dinner event at a hotel.
"I said I was concerned when he fell and hit his head a number of months ago and was hospitalized," Barrasso, a former orthopedic surgeon, told reporters. "I think he's made a remarkable recovery; he's doing a great job leading our conference and was able to answer every question the press asked him today."
McConnell had polio as a youth and has said he has problems climbing stairs as an adult.
He has served in the Senate since 1984, becoming the longest-serving party leader in history in January.
In addition to Biden and McConnell, questions have also been raised regarding the fitness of California's Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 90, following a bout with shingles that kept her out of the Senate for more than two months.
Pennsylvania's Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, 53, suffered a stroke right before that state's primary election in 2022 and then took several weeks' leave for clinical depression earlier this year.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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