President Donald Trump seemed to question a well-documented part of Sen. Mitch McConnell's life — his childhood battle with polio — after the Kentucky Republican opposed vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation Thursday as the nation's top health official.
Trump attacked McConnell's mental acuity and said he had "no idea" if the senator had polio. The Oval Office barrage exposed the icy relationship between the Republican president and the former Senate GOP leader. They worked in tandem on tax cuts and judicial appointments during Trump's first term, but their relationship soured after McConnell blamed Trump for "disgraceful" acts in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and the president made personal comments about McConnell and his family.
McConnell's office did not immediately respond to the president's attack Thursday. Earlier, the senator referred to himself as a survivor of childhood polio and talked about the life-saving impact of vaccines, in explaining his opposition to Kennedy's confirmation as Trump's health secretary.
“I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles,” McConnell said in the statement.
McConnell was the only “no” vote against Kennedy among Senate Republicans. He also voted against Trump’s picks for the Pentagon chief and director of national intelligence.
McConnell supported various other Trump nominees, heaping praise on them, but the president focused on the senator's votes against other nominees for top administration posts.
“He votes against almost everything now,” the president said. “He’s a, you know, very bitter guy.”
Trump commented earlier that he felt sorry for McConnell and said the Kentuckian had wanted to stay on as Senate GOP leader. He said McConnell clung to power because of his fundraising prowess, which the president said anyone could do in such a leadership position.
“He’s not equipped mentally,” the president said. “He wasn’t equipped 10 years ago, mentally, in my opinion. He let the Republican Party go to hell.”
Trump characterized McConnell's vote against Kennedy as actually a vote against him.
When a reporter mentioned to Trump that McConnell had polio, the president replied: ”I don’t know anything about he had polio.”
When asked if he was doubting McConnell's polio battle, Trump said: “I have no idea if he had polio. All I can tell you about him is that he shouldn’t have been leader."
McConnell was diagnosed with “acute poliomyelitis” when he was 2 years old and was treated at the polio rehabilitation facility in Warm Springs, Georgia, founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Doctors there prescribed a strict regime of physical therapy for two years, including the instruction to not let the boy walk as they thought it would impede his recovery. Instead, his mother administered physical therapy four times a day, 45 minutes at a time. After two years, doctors said they believed he could lead a normal life.
But McConnell had difficulty running, which limited his ability to play sports. And in 1985, he started to notice signs of weakness in his polio-afflicted left leg. Problems with the leg have become more acute and led to several falls, including one that caused a serious concussion. The latest issues with his leg align with symptoms of what doctors have determined is “post-polio syndrome.”
The famously guarded McConnell choked up in a 2020 interview when talking about how "lucky" he was to have a mother "who was determined to see me walk again." He discussed the lifelong guiding principles he attributes to his mother – tenacity, hard work and not giving up.
”My mother instilled all that in me before I was 4 years old and I think it’s been a guiding principle in how I lead my life,” he said.
On Thursday, McConnell said he made his stand against Kennedy's confirmation because the country deserves a health leader “who is willing to acknowledge without qualification the efficacy of life-saving vaccines.” Trump announced that Kennedy will lead a new commission on making America healthy again.
Always the pragmatist, McConnell had advice for Kennedy: "As he takes office, I sincerely hope Mr. Kennedy will choose not to sow further doubt and division but to restore trust in our public health institutions,” the senator said.
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Associated Press writer Michael Tackett contributed to this report.
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