Attorney General Michael Mukasey Collapses (VIDEO)
Attorney General Michael Mukasey was feeling better Friday after collapsing during a speech, a spokeswoman said, reporting that hospital medical tests showed no signs of a stroke or cardiac-related problem.
Gina Talamona of the Justice Department told reporters the 67-year-old Mukasey, who had been rushed to George Washington University Hospital after the attack late Thursday, was still recovering Friday and had more tests scheduled as a precaution. She said he never transferred his authority as attorney general at any time during the incident.
"There's no indication that he suffered a stroke or any heart-related incident," Talamona said outside the hospital. "It really appears to be a fainting spell."
A senior Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that an MRI was clear. The official was not authorized to publicly speak about Mukasey's medical procedures.
President Bush telephoned the attorney general shortly before 7 a.m. EST to wish him a speedy recovery, press secretary Dana Perino said, describing Mukasey as "sounding well" and saying he was getting "excellent care."
Talamona noted that Mukasey had had a very busy day before going to a Washington hotel to give the keynote speech to at a black-tie dinner of The Federalist Society, a conservative-oriented legal group. During the talk, he began to slur his words, nodded, turned and started to collapse when he was caught by men standing nearby.
His spokeswoman noted that he "works long days. It was a late night speech under hot lights."
She said doctors were doing an additional round of routine tests.
"He certainly wants to leave and get back to work as soon as possible," Talamona said.
Of Mukasey, she said: "He's in good shape, he's very active, he's very alert and very ready to leave."
Bush brought the retired federal judge in last year to replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who resigned under pressure in a controversy over the firings of several federal prosecutors.
It was not clear when Mukasey would be released from the hospital after being admitted overnight for observation and tests. He briefly lost consciousness during the attack.
Mukasey opened his speech on terrorism with a wry remark about expecting the mood at the dinner to be "somber or sober." He slumped over the podium about 15 minutes later and could be seen swaying and shaking slightly just before he collapsed.
"Oh, no, no!" people in the audience cried out as Mukasey fell. "Oh, my God!"
Mukasey is Bush's third attorney general. The flinty but measured New Yorker has said the job initially discouraged him, and he has scaled back his public appearances in recent weeks.
A former prosecutor who saw Mukasey hours earlier described the attorney general as tired-looking and drawn.
Talamona said that Mukasey's wife, Susan, was with him at the hospital.
After collapsing, Mukasey lay on the stage for about 10 minutes being attended to by his FBI security detail and medical personnel at the dinner, said eyewitness Abigail Thernstrom, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Though he lost consciousness initially, Mukasey appeared to be awake when he was taken from the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in northwest Washington, she said.
"It was hard to watch such a thing," Thernstrom said. "It was horrible."
A Republican staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jack Daly, who was also at the dinner, said in an e-mail to colleagues sent at 10:20 p.m. EST: "AG Mukasey collapsed in the middle of his keynote address at tonight's fed-soc dinner. He is still on stage after ten minutes and his security detail has called 911. The paramedics just arrived."
Twenty minutes later, Daly added in another e-mail: "Mukasey did regain consciousness before he was taken away."
Watch CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta assess Mukasey's collapse:
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First Posted: 11-20-08 10:19 PM | Updated: 12-21-08 05:12 AM