U.S. Senate leader McConnell fractures shoulder in fall

[August 05, 2019]    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell fell at his home in Kentucky on Sunday and fractured his shoulder, a spokesman said.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) addresses reporters after the weekly Senate party caucus luncheons at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., July 23, 2019. REUTERS/Eric Thayer/File Photo

"This morning, Leader McConnell tripped at home on his outside patio and suffered a fractured shoulder. He has been treated, released, and is working from home in Louisville," McConnell spokesman David Popp said in a statement.

McConnell, a 77-year-old Republican, was injured as Democrats were urging him to call an emergency session of the Senate to debate gun control legislation in the wake of two shootings that killed 29 people in Texas and Ohio over the weekend.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the Senate should stop its "outrageous obstruction" and pass legislation to expand background checks on gun purchases that the House approved earlier this year.

McConnell called the weekend shootings "terrible" on Twitter, but he has not responded to the calls for him to bring the Senate back to Washington from its August recess. Popp, in his statement, said McConnell had contacted senators from Texas and Ohio to express his sympathies "and discuss the senseless tragedies of this weekend."

Members of the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives are on break until early September.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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