“This morning, Leader McConnell tripped at home on his outside patio and suffered a fractured shoulder,” his spokesman, David Popp, said in a statement Sunday. “He has been treated, released, and is working from home in Louisville.”
According to the statement, McConnell had been in contact with Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio to “express his deepest sympathies for the people of El Paso and Dayton” and to discuss the “tragedies.” Two mass shootings erupted over the weekend in Texas and Ohio less than 24 hours apart, leaving 31 dead and dozens wounded.
McConnell will “continue to work from home,” the statement said.
It was unclear exactly what treatment McConnell, 77, had received for his shoulder.
Paul, 56, announced Monday that he had surgery over the weekend to remove part of his lung that he said was damaged in a 2017 attack when a neighbor tackled him as he did yardwork.
“Unfortunately, I will have to limit my August activities,” Paul said on Twitter. “I should be able to return to the Senate in September.” He is recovering at home in Bowling Green, a representative said.
In January, Paul was awarded $580,000 in damages in a lawsuit he filed against the neighbor, Rene A. Boucher, who pleaded guilty to felony assault last year. In the attack, Paul suffered broken ribs and came down with pneumonia, which kept him out of Washington for almost two weeks.
The Republicans’ injuries come as Democrats call for urgent action after the two mass shootings this weekend. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, suggested that President Donald Trump demand that McConnell put the universal background checks bill up for vote in the Republican-controlled Senate. McConnell has given no indication that measures would be taken up.
“I hope that Sen. McConnell would bring the Senate back tomorrow and pass the background check bill and send it to the president,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told CNN on Sunday. “The president must sign it. Period.”
On Monday during a televised address, Trump stopped well short of supporting the kind of broad gun control measures that activists and Democrats have sought for a long time, even as he condemned white supremacy in the wake of the shootings without recognizing his own reluctance to warn of its rise until now. He instead opted to highlight time-honored Republican alternatives, calling for stronger action to address mental illness, violence in the media and in video games, as well as “the perils of the internet and social media,” without acknowledging his use of those platforms to promote his own brand of divisive politics.
He did not reiterate his earlier request on Twitter for a bipartisan effort to strengthen background checks for prospective gun buyers, but his proposal to link new gun control measures with immigration restrictions is likely to leave Democrats sternly opposed.
Last week, the Senate ended a session without floor votes on key issues like the high cost of prescription drugs, immigration and infrastructure. McConnell had previously promised to end gridlock in the Senate.
McConnell, however, has been successful this year in getting the Senate to approve several of Trump’s judicial and administration nominees. The Senate has confirmed 13 circuit court nominees and 46 of his district court nominees.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.