Still absent from public view, Mitch McConnell breaks his silence for 9/11

WASHINGTON, DC: Mitch McConnell returned to the national conversation on Friday, September 11, without making a public appearance, issuing a written statement on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks as he remains away from the Senate following a June fall.

The Kentucky Republican's office released the statement on September 11, marking his latest public communication after months out of public view.

McConnell, 84, was hospitalized after a fall in June and later said he was recovering from pneumonia and undergoing physical therapy.

His office announced in August that he had been discharged from rehabilitation to continue recovering at home, but did not provide a date for his return to the Senate.

Mitch McConnell remembers the lives lost that day

In his statement, McConnell recalled the clear skies that filled with dust on September 11, 2001, and remembered the Americans killed in the attacks.

“Today, I remember the clouds of dust that filled clear blue skies twenty-five years ago, stealing away fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, friends and colleagues,” he wrote.

McConnell also referred to the years of conflict that followed, writing that he remembered: “the faraway battlefields that claimed thousands more.”

He offered his sympathies to families still carrying the grief of September 11, saying the pain remains personal and unrelenting for many Americans.

McConnell added that time could ease the nation's shared pain but would never “fill empty seats at family tables.”

McConnell's message centers on 'never again'

The former Senate Republican leader then turned from remembrance to what he described as America's continuing responsibility.

“On top of remembrance and sympathy rests another national responsibility every bit as important: to give weight to the words Never Again,” McConnell wrote.

He said the attacks showed the fragility of America's security and the cost of protecting it.

“If we are still resolved never again to pay such a price, we must look with clear eyes at a dangerous world and redouble our efforts to outcompete those who would do us harm,” McConnell said.

The message reflected a theme McConnell has repeatedly raised in past 9/11 statements: remembering those lost while maintaining America's national security commitments.

McConnell's voice returns amid absence

McConnell has not appeared publicly or cast a Senate vote since his June hospitalization.  

His prolonged absence has drawn questions about when he will return as the Senate prepares to reconvene. 

Recent reporting said his office had not publicly announced a return date, although reports this week said Senate leaders were preparing for the possibility of his return.