WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell appeared to briefly freeze up and was unable to answer a question from a reporter at an event in Kentucky on Wednesday, Aug. 30, weeks after he had a similar episode in Washington.

As seen on video from a local news station, the 81-year-old McConnell was asked whether he would run for reelection in 2026. The senator asked the reporter to repeat the question before trailing off and staring straight ahead for about 10 seconds.

An aide standing at the front of the room with McConnell then asked him whether he heard the question and repeated it to him. When McConnell did not answer, the aide announced to the room that “we’re going to need a minute,” and McConnell continued to stare ahead. In all, he was silent for around 30 seconds.

The latest incident in Covington, Kentucky, only adds to the questions in recent months about McConnell’s health and whether the Republican, who was first elected to the Senate in 1984 and has served as GOP leader since 2007, will remain in Congress and in his leadership post. His reaction was similar to an occurrence in July, when he froze for about 20 seconds at a news conference in the Capitol. That time, he went back to his office with aides and then returned to answer more questions.

McConnell eventually answered two additional questions at the Kentucky event — though not the one about a 2026 campaign — and appeared to have some difficulty speaking. The aide then ended the news conference and McConnell slowly left the room.

His office said afterward that McConnell was feeling “momentarily lightheaded” and would see a physician before his next event. Similarly, after the July episode, aides said McConnell was lightheaded and McConnell told reporters several hours later that he was “fine.” McConnell’s office has so far declined to give any further details about what happened or why.

The latest freeze-up came after McConnell had already given a 20-minute speech. He appeared more comfortable during that part of the program, discussing the upcoming Senate session and joking at one point that his job is like “a groundskeeper at a cemetery. Everybody is under you but nobody is listening.”

In March, McConnell suffered a concussion and a broken rib after falling and hitting his head after a dinner event at a hotel. He did not return to the Senate for almost six weeks. Since he returned, he has appeared to walk more slowly and his speech has often sounded more halting.

McConnell had polio in his early childhood and he has long acknowledged some difficulty as an adult in climbing stairs. In addition to his fall in March, he also tripped and fell four years ago at his home in Kentucky, causing a shoulder fracture that required surgery.

After the event was over on Aug, 30, McConnell made calls to several of his top deputies in GOP leadership, including South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican who is seen as one of his potential successors. McConnell “sounded like his usual self and was in good spirits,” Thune spokesman Ryan Wrasse said.

Later in the day, McConnell attended an event in Louisville with Rep. Jim Banks, who is running for Senate in Indiana. Banks posted a photo of the two men on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and said he enjoyed a wide-ranging discussion with McConnell “about the future of our country.”

Asked about McConnell, President Joe Biden said he had just heard what had happened.

“Mitch is a friend, as you know,” Biden said. “Not a joke. … He’s a good friend. I’m going to try to get in touch with him this afternoon. “

West Point time capsule that appeared to contain nothing more than silt yields centuries-old coins

WEST POINT, N.Y. — A nearly 200-year-old West Point time capsule that appeared to yield little more than dust when it was opened during a disappointing livestream contained hidden treasure after all, the U.S. Military Academy said Wednesday, Aug. 30.

It was just more hidden than expected.

The lead box believed to have been placed by cadets in the base of a monument actually contained six silver American coins dating from 1795 to 1828 and a commemorative medal, West Point said in a news release. All were discovered in the sediment of the box, which at the Aug. 28 ceremonial opening at the New York academy appeared to be its only contents.

“When I first found these, I thought, man, you know, it would have been great to have found these on stage,” said West Point archeologist Paul Hudson, who after the event, took the box back to his lab and began carefully sifting through the silt with a small wooden pick and brush.

“Before long, lo and behold, there’s the edge of a coin sticking out,” he recounted by phone, “and I thought, well that’s OK. That’s something, that’s a start.”

He said he was as disappointed as anyone by the underwhelming results of the live opening, which brought comparisons to Geraldo Rivera’s televised 1986 unsealing of a Chicago hotel vault purportedly belonging to gangster Al Capone, which infamously revealed nothing but dirt. A crowd that had gathered at the U.S. Military Academy had hoped to see military relics or historical documents when experts pried open the top and pointed a camera inside.

It was probably better to extract the coins and medal in a controlled setting anyway, said Hudson, who still plans to analyze the sediment for more clues about what else may have been inside.

It appeared that moisture and perhaps sediment seeped in to the box from a damaged seam. The conditions also could have disintegrated any organic matter inside, like paper or wood.

What did survive were a 1795 5-cent coin, an 1800 Liberty dollar, 1818 25-cent coin, 10-cent and 1-cent coins from 1827, and an 1828 50-cent coin. There was also an Erie Canal commemorative medal dating to 1826.

Various expert websites indicate the potential value of most of the coins, depending on the condition, is between a couple hundred dollars to well over $1,000.

The finds seem to confirm academy officials’ theory that the box was left by cadets in 1828 or 1829, when the original monument, which honors Revolutionary War hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko, was completed. A committee of five cadets that included 1829 graduate Robert E. Lee, the future Confederate general, was involved with the dedication of the monument.

Kosciuszko had designed wartime fortifications for the Continental Army at West Point. He died in 1817. A statue of Kosciuszko was added to the monument in 1913.

The historical preservation and analysis of the time capsule will continue.

“I think there’s more that we can learn from this,” Hudson said, “to learn about the academy’s history and about the country’s history.”