D.C. heat sent Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to the ER on Wednesday after the 74-year-old lawmaker felt lightheaded in the Senate gym and was hustled off for IV fluids. Staffers say it was “purely precautionary”—but the incident landed as the capital broiled near 100°F under the first major heat dome of the summer, part of a scorcher blanketing 170 million Americans from Georgia to New England.
Schumer bounced back to the Capitol after treatment, but the scare piles onto a string of health emergencies that have spotlighted Congress’s advanced age. Mitch McConnell (83) and Nancy Pelosi (85) have both suffered serious falls, and six sitting House Democrats have died in the past 14 months. The heat is only upping the pressure—literally—on a body already under scrutiny for running on geriatric fumes.
AccuWeather meteorologists warn the current “record-challenging” heat wave is just getting started, with 25 states under blistering temps and humidity thick enough to chew. As one Capitol cop put it, dousing himself with bottled water on the East Front steps: “It’s like Florida moved in and never left.”
Washington’s forecast? More 90-plus days ahead—meaning legislators (and everyone else) had better keep the Gatorade handy.
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