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Dole Hospitalized at Walter Reed for Low Blood Pressure

The former Senate majority leader was admitted last week

Former Sen. Bob Dole was on Capitol Hill in March for U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer's, left, confirmation hearing. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)
Former Sen. Bob Dole was on Capitol Hill in March for U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer's, left, confirmation hearing. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, last week for low blood pressure, Fox News reported.

Dole, 94, and his wife, former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, tweeted confirmation of the story.

He added a light-hearted note that he hopes to be “sipping a cosmo” soon.

“After a routine check-up, he experienced a brief bout of low blood pressure, which they are correcting with medication,” Dole’s communications director, Marion Watkins, told Fox on Friday. He was admitted Sept. 13.

Watkins added that the senator is staying at Walter Reed for “observation” to make sure the medication is working, and that they hope he will be released in a few days.

The couple missed the lead-up to the Invictus Games, an international Paralympic-style multi-sport event, in Toronto, according to Elizabeth Dole’s tweet. The games start Saturday.

Dole was the GOP Senate leader for 11 years and five months, longer than any other senator to serve in the position since it was created. He served in the Senate from 1969 to 1996 and, prior to that, the House from 1961 to 1969. He was the GOP vice presidential nominee in 1976 and the party’s nominee in 1996. Dole served in the army in World War II and was severely injured just two weeks before the war’s end, in 1945, while trying to rescue a fallen comrade.

David Hawkings contributed to this report.

 

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