President Donald Trump insulted Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and cast doubt on the senator’s battle with polio on Thursday after he voted against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation to serve as health and human services secretary.
“He’s not voting against Bobby, he’s voting against me,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Asked about McConnell’s bout with polio influencing his decision to vote no, Trump appeared to question his diagnosis.
“I have no idea if he had polio,” Trump said. “All I can tell you about him is that he shouldn’t have been leader.”
McConnell, who had polio as a child, was the only Republican to vote against Kennedy’s confirmation.
The 82-year-old senator has written about and publicly discussed the paralyzing disease, the effect on his life – including his childhood days confined to bed or undergoing a strict physical therapy regimen to rehabilitate his left leg – and his ardent support of lifesaving vaccines.
Kennedy, who has denied being anti-vaccine, has repeatedly linked the childhood vaccine schedule to autism – a claim that has been debunked by scientists.
“I’m a survivor of childhood polio. In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world,” the longtime former Republican leader said in a statement earlier Thursday. “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.”
Trump also questioned McConnell’s mental fitness, saying “he’s not equipped mentally” to lead the Republican Party and called McConnell “bitter,” claiming that he won support from Republicans because of his fundraising ability in his previous Senate leadership position.
The icy relationship between McConnell and Trump has remained fragile over the years: weakened over fights to regain party control of the Senate and the party’s failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, fortified by policy victories such as the Republican tax cuts passed in 2017, then diminished again after public and often personal attacks.
Trump has ranted online about McConnell, repeatedly called McConnell’s Taiwan-born wife, Elaine Chao, a racist nickname, and called for the Republican Party to dump their longtime leader, claiming McConnell is responsible for GOP division.
McConnell has in turn said Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and blamed Trump for the GOP’s abysmal 2020 and 2022 election results, but he ultimately endorsed Trump as the Republican nominee in 2024.
No longer in party leadership, McConnell, who is likely to retire at the end of his term in 2026, has voted no on several of Trump’s high-profile and controversial cabinet nominees, including Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Pete Hegseth for defense secretary.
McConnell suffered a fall last week and was seen using a wheelchair on Capitol Hill. In a statement, McConnell’s spokesperson said the senator is fine, adding, “The lingering effects of polio in his left leg will not disrupt his regular schedule of work.”
(c) 2025, The Washington Post · Brianna Tucker, Maegan Vazquez