Republican congressman has 'medical emergency' near House floor

(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

published 12 January 2017

John Rutherford, a 64-year-old freshman congressman from Florida, was taken out of the Capitol on a stretcher Wednesday.

Rutherford was on the House floor for a vote on an amendment to the Regulatory Accountability Act, but was absent for the next 10 House votes, WOKV reports. The station says he was in the Republican cloakroom off the House floor when he suffered a "medical emergency." Rutherford's chief of staff, Kelly Simpson, said he did not have a heart attack and is "conscious, alert, and in good spirits."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.