New Delhi, July 13 -- WASHINGTON - Mitch McConnell ended twenty-eight days of official silence on Sunday with a statement disclosing that a fall at his Washington home in June had led to a hospitalization and a subsequent case of pneumonia. The 84-year-old Senate minority leader offered the explanation after weeks in which his office had declined to specify what had kept him away from Capitol Hill, and during which a neighbor's emergency call had become the most detailed public account of what had actually occurred.

The statement arrived July 12, the same day the Senate was returning to session following a recess. McConnell said he had suffered a fall and developed pneumonia while recovering, and that he was continuing to recuperate. His...