Sen. Mitch McConnell’s wife traveled to China just three days after the longtime Kentucky Republican reportedly received CPR following an apparent heart attack.
Elaine Chao, 73, who has been married to the 84-year-old senator since 1993 and served as transportation secretary during President Donald Trump’s first administration, traveled to Beijing and met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng just days after McConnell was hospitalized.
Photos published by Chinese media show Chao seated across from Zheng during a June 17 meeting, where the pair reportedly discussed strengthening U.S.-China relations.
The overseas trip comes as questions continue to mount over McConnell’s condition after an emergency dispatch call released this week revealed he was hospitalized following a heart attack on June 14. Emergency responders were sent to his Washington, D.C., home after the incident.
Journalist Desiree Townsend first released the dispatch audio.
McConnell’s office has confirmed that the senator remains hospitalized but has provided few details about his condition, including whether he is conscious or who is overseeing his day-to-day Senate operations.
“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” an emailed statement from his office reads. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”
Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an assistant professor at Harvard, has suggested McConnell’s medical condition could be more severe than his office has indicated, noting that patients who survive CPR after a heart attack often face a lengthy recovery.
“If it does work and we can restart their heart and their heart is beating spontaneously, that begins a long road to recovery, even for the healthiest of patients,” Faust said Thursday on CNN’s *Erin Burnett OutFront*.
“So when you have a person who is elderly and who has other underlying medical conditions, it’s really concerning,” he added.
McConnell has experienced multiple health issues during his seven terms in the Senate. First elected in 1984 and sworn into office in 1985, he is the longest-serving senator in Kentucky history. Concerns about his health have intensified in recent years following a series of hospitalizations and falls.
In February, McConnell spent eight days in the hospital after checking himself in “in an abundance of caution” because of flu-like symptoms.
He also fell at the Capitol in October after being approached by activists and was helped up by aides and U.S. Capitol Police. In February 2025, he was seen leaving the Capitol in a wheelchair after suffering two falls in quick succession.
The senator also fell during a Senate Republican lunch in December 2024. In 2023, he was hospitalized after suffering a concussion and a minor rib fracture in another fall.
Democrat Charles Booker, who is running to replace McConnell, has questioned whether the senator’s aides are being fully transparent about the severity of his condition.
Booker pointed to a June 22 statement from McConnell spokesman David Popp that said only the senator would miss votes while hospitalized, without disclosing additional information about his health.
After the emergency dispatch recording revealed CPR had been administered, Booker said the public explanations are “hard to square,” adding that “Kentuckians and Americans deserve to know which one reflects reality.”
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