WASHINGTON _ Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., last week for low blood pressure, Fox News reported.
Dole, 94, and his wife, former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., tweeted confirmation of the story.
He added a light-hearted note that he hopes to be "sipping a cosmo" soon.
"Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. I hope to be home sipping a cosmo in a few days," he tweeted.
His wife tweeted: "Sorry to miss #InvictusGames2017. I'm with my husband, @SenatorDole, at the hospital. Please pray for his speedy recovery."
Bob Dole's communications director, Marion Watkins, told Fox on Friday: "After a routine check-up, he experienced a brief bout of low blood pressure, which they are correcting with medication," She said 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 multisport event, in Toronto, according to Elizabeth Dole's tweet. The games start Saturday.
Bob 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.
