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Senate Republican leaders say they’ve spoken to Mitch McConnell as he remains hospitalized

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on “The Abduction of Ukrainian Children by the Russian Federation” on Capitol Hill on December 3, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

(WASHINGTON) — Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell has had phone conversations with several Republican leaders as he remains hospitalized, spokespeople for the lawmakers told ABC News on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for McConnell first confirmed the senator had been hospitalized on June 14 for an unknown condition. His office has not provided many updates, though they said McConnell is continuing his recovery in the hospital. 

“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” a McConnell spokesperson said in a statement first issued last week that ABC News was told continues to stand Tuesday. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso have both spoken to McConnell recently, according to their respective spokespeople.

Thune had a phone conversation with McConnell on Monday, his spokesperson confirmed. 

“They had a lengthy and substantive conversation that covered a variety of topics, including national security,” a Thune spokesperson said. 

Barrasso spokesperson Kate Noyes said the two discussed a number of topics, including recent sexual assault allegations against Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner (allegations Platner has denied) and national defense spending, during a 20-minute phone conversation on Tuesday afternoon. 

“They caught up about the latest news impacting Senate races, the Graham Platner scandal, and the recent Supreme Court ruling on coordinated spending limits. They also discussed the Senate’s July work period, including the need to pass the NDAA and confirm President Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence,” Noyes said. “Senator McConnell was fully engaged and is eager to get back to the Senate.”

A McConnell spokesperson also pointed ABC News to a statement from conservative political commentator Scott Jennings, who posted online that he had a nearly 20-minute conversation with McConnell on Tuesday morning on several matters.

“I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky. He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes … about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history. I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible,” Jennings posted on X. 

These conversations come almost three weeks after McConnell was first admitted to the hospital, according to his spokesperson.

McConnell’s team has not provided any information about his diagnosis, or a timeline for his return.

ABC News has reported that emergency medical personnel were dispatched to McConnell’s Washington home to attend to an unconscious person who appeared to be in cardiac arrest on June 14, the same day that McConnell was hospitalized.

ABC News independently reviewed the audio, which does not directly name McConnell. A spokesperson for McConnell declined to comment on the audio. 

The day after McConnell was hospitalized, Thune and Barrasso told reporters at the Capitol that they had spoken with the former party leader. On June 22, a McConnell spokesperson said in a separate statement that he was “working closely with staff on Senate business and Kentucky matters as he continues his recovery” but that he would not be attending votes that week.

McConnell was last seen on Capitol Hill on June 11. The Senate recessed on June 24, and lawmakers won’t return to Washington until July 13. 

This is the latest in a string of medical incidents that the seven-term senator and longtime Republican leader has faced in recent years. McConnell, 84, stepped down from leadership in 2024 and is set to retire at the end of his term in January.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

‘Decades in Sports’: How the 1980s Miami Hurricanes became one of the most hated teams in sports history

By CNN
(CNN) — Editor’s note: Watch CNN Original Series “Decades in Sports” on the CNN app. Across six episodes, the series explores the defining moments, athletes and cultural shifts that shaped sports over the past six decades, from the television revolution and Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, right up to the impact of social media on today’s biggest stars.There have been plenty of dominant teams in the 150-plus-year history of college football, but few have left a bigger mark on the sport than the Miami Hurricanes did during the 1980s.The Canes were a team that went against the grain, trash-talking in a way that constantly got under their opponents’ skin, celebrating wildly after big plays and dancing in the end zone after touchdowns with a swagger that stood out as much as their bright orange jerseys.“That made them such a phenomenon,” says John U. Bacon, author of Fourth and Long: The Fight for the Soul of College Football, as the Hurricanes’ bold, brash and arrogant style transformed college football into something closer to theater.As Bacon also highlights in the series, “The Hurricanes were the bad boys of college football.” However, their impact was felt far beyond the gridiron, as the 1986 squad was even labeled the most hated team of all time by Sports Illustrated.For context, the 25-team list devised by Sports Illustrated featured some of the most polarizing teams in US sports history, such as the 1988-89 Detroit Pistons (widely known as the “Bad Boys”), the 2010-11 Miami Heat (universally recognized as the team that kickstarted the “superteam” era in the NBA) and the 2007 New England Patriots (who became the ultimate villains of the NFL after the infamous “Spygate” scandal.But it was this college football program which topped them all. As Bacon says, “They were more popular in Miami than the Dolphins, and the Dolphins had (1984 NFL MVP) Dan Marino.”Why Miami was so hatedThe Canes’ boisterous antics were not just empty calories – they backed it up when they stepped onto the field.Like many polarizing sports teams throughout history, Miami garnered attention because it won. Winning made the Hurricanes easy to root against, but also impossible to ignore.However, what truly set them apart is how they embraced the role of the villain.Before facing defending national champion and top-ranked Oklahoma in September 1986 in front of over 70,000 fans at the Orange Bowl, the Hurricanes famously defied protocol and refused to shake hands with the Sooners, sparking a heated exchange between the top two teams right in front of the TV cameras.Game officials intervened and even threatened to throw a penalty flag if Miami snubbed the pre-game handshake. But the Hurricanes didn’t budge and backed up their pre-game antics by beating the Sooners 28-16.Their “style ruffled a lot of feathers,” says Dr. Todd Boyd, Professor of Cinema and Music Studies at USC. But the more people disliked Miami, the more the team seemed to embrace it.Later that same season, they took it a step further.When landing in Tempe, Arizona, for the 1987 Fiesta Bowl against Penn State, which served as the national championship game, the Hurricanes famously stepped off their plane wearing full camouflage military fatigues in an attempt to intimidate the Nittany Lions.It didn’t work on that occasion, as Miami fell 14-10 in the title game. But the following year, the “Bad Boy” Hurricanes came out on top, going unbeaten and taking down the Oklahoma Sooners – again – 20-14 to win the national championship.As Van Lathan – journalist and podcaster at The Ringer – says in the series, “The 80s were an anti-hero decade.”Lathan went on to highlight that, during that time, “We are re-examining what is OK in the name of coming out on top. This is a post-Watergate America … and whatever it takes, we are going to win.”No one embodied that shift more than this group from South Florida: It was win by any means necessary.As sports journalist and podcaster Bomani Jones highlights: “It became the dominant culture of the sport.”However, none of this would have been possible without a coach who not only allowed his players the space to go about their business in such a controversial manner, but one who encouraged the brash and boisterous behavior they took to stadiums across the country: Jimmy Johnson.The Jimmy Johnson effectWhen Johnson arrived in South Florida in 1984, he had pretty big shoes to fill.Howard Schnellenberger – who helped build Miami’s college football program into one of the elite programs over five seasons – had just departed after leading the Hurricanes to their first national championship, upsetting the unbeaten, top-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers 31-30 at the Orange Bowl.However, despite Schnellenberger being the original architect of Miami’s success, it was under Johnson that the Hurricanes truly peaked.After going 18-7 in his first two seasons, Miami went 34-2 in his final three, winning the national championship in 1987 and narrowly losing one 14-10 to Penn State in 1986 after Johnson led the Hurricanes to the first undefeated regular season in program history.But it was the culture Johnson cultivated in South Florida that made his tenure so memorable.There was a shift happening in sports in the 1980s, with players becoming more brash and expressive. It is something that is celebrated today but was highly frowned upon at the time.Johnson’s genius was not only in recognizing that shift, but also in allowing his players to be their authentic selves out on the field, because as Jones highlights in the series: “The Florida boys are different, (and) they have a really good time when they play their football.“Normally, when you get a lot of players who like to dance when they score a touchdown and like to talk a bunch of sh*t when they play, you have a coach who is trying to tamp that down and get them to behave a little bit more respectably…“Jimmy Johnson loved it! He loved it as much as they did. He’s like, ‘As long as we win, you can do whatever you want.’”On its face, it sounds simple, but it was highly effective and it was an era that redefined what a college football powerhouse could look like. They were rough around the edges, bold, brash and arrogant – but that’s what made them who they were.Better to be remembered for something than not remembered at all. And no one will forget the 1980s Miami Hurricanes, the “Bad Boys of college football.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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