LISBON, Maine — U.S. Sen. Susan Collins texted with colleague Mitch McConnell shortly after he was hospitalized last month, but she said Saturday that she doesn’t know the latest on his condition.
The Republican senator spoke with reporters just before the Moxie Festival parade, marking her first public event since Democrat Graham Platner submitted paperwork Friday to end his Senate campaign following a Politico story on an ex-girlfriend’s sexual assault allegations against him. Maine Democrats are on an unprecedented sprint to pick a replacement by July 27.
Collins has long been an ally of McConnell, the 84-year-old former Senate Republican leader from Kentucky who sits on the appropriations committee that the Maine senator chairs. McConnell has been hospitalized since June 14 and has released no photos or videos since, putting him at the center of a wider debate over age and fitness to serve.
Video and an eyewitness account reported Friday by CNN show emergency responders removing him from his Washington home on a stretcher that morning, with an EMS audio recording separately indicating he was “unconscious” and in “cardiac arrest.”
Aides have said that McConnell “continues to improve,” while a spokesperson declined to comment to CNN on the new details. Collins said she didn’t know what his condition was.
“I have texted with him early on,” she said. “I have not spoken to him recently, but I’ve talked to both Sen. [John] Thune and Sen. Barrasso,” the No. 1 and 2 Republicans in the chamber, “who have spoken directly to him.”
Collins declined to weigh in on the nominating process to choose her opponent in her race, which is one of the crucial ones in deciding control of the Senate. She repeated an earlier line, saying she’s “not a member of the Democratic Party” and has no role in the selection. But recent events have not forced major changes to Collins’ strategy, she said.
“We were always going to have a very strong grassroots organization, and that’s what we’ve built, and you can see that represented here today,” she said, surrounded by supporters and staff at the start of the parade.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
