Rep. Larson Team Issues Statement After Freezing During Speech
Another day, another geriatric Democrat freezing up mid-sentence while trying to lecture Americans about government efficiency. This time, it was Rep. John Larson (D-CT), a 76-year-old career politician who found himself staring blankly into the abyss on the House floor while attempting to criticize the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The irony writes itself.
As Larson fumbled through his speech and struggled to regain his train of thought, it became painfully clear that something wasn’t right. Eventually, his time ran out, and he was left awkwardly flipping through his papers while the chamber moved on without him.
Shortly after, his office rushed out a statement, assuring everyone that it was nothing serious—just an “adverse reaction to a new medication.” Of course. Because it’s always the medication, never the fact that Congress is packed with members who are old enough to remember when TVs had rabbit ears.
To hear Larson’s team tell it, he was back in his office later that day, completely fine, alert, engaged, and conducting meetings like nothing happened. That’s the usual script. Every time one of these aging politicians has a very public senior moment, their staff rushes to assure everyone that they’re in great health. Pay no attention to the fact that Larson’s moment on the House floor is just the latest in a string of similar incidents involving politicians who are clearly past their prime.
Naturally, once the video of the incident hit X (formerly Twitter), the responses were all over the place. Some offered well wishes, but plenty of others pointed out the obvious: maybe it’s time for these politicians to retire. Maybe—just maybe—we shouldn’t have lawmakers clinging to power well into their late 70s, 80s, and even 90s.
The idea that someone like Larson, or Joe Biden, or Mitch McConnell, or Nancy Pelosi is at the peak of their mental sharpness is laughable. Yet, time and time again, we’re told that experience is what matters most, even when “experience” starts to look an awful lot like confusion and blank stares.
And let’s not forget Larson’s own defense of this system. Last summer, when asked about Connecticut’s aging congressional delegation—where the average age of its members is 66—he actually defended it, saying that seniority is a “very good thing.”
Maybe for him, sure. It keeps him in power and ensures he gets to hold onto that precious seniority-based influence in Congress. But for the average American watching politicians struggle to form coherent sentences on live television? Not so much.
The reality is that Washington, D.C. has become a retirement home with a legislative chamber attached to it. While the rest of the country deals with real-world consequences of their policies—soaring inflation, skyrocketing crime, a broken border—too many of our leaders can barely get through a speech without seizing up like a Windows 98 computer.
The fact that we even have to debate term limits in 2024 is absurd. Americans deserve leaders who are capable, present, and—at the very least—able to finish a sentence without freezing mid-thought.
The time for term limits in congress are long overdue.