Associated Press
WASHINGTON Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, the nation’s longest-serving senator, collapsed Tuesday on the Senate floor. His condition was not immediately known.
The Senate chamber was then cleared at the order of Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D.
Among the senators near Thurmond when he collapsed was Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a physician. Thurmond, 98, is a Republican.
Capitol police closed off the second floor of the Capitol near the entrances to the Senate chamber.
Thurmond was lying in the aisle near his desk at the front of the chamber with three people surrounding him and what looked like an oxygen mask over his face. The Senate was taking an early morning vote when he collapsed.
Thurmond, born in December 1902, is legendary for both his political and physical endurance. A one-time Democratic segregationist, he holds the record for a solo Senate filibuster. He had gradually scaled back his duties in recent years as his health declined.
More details to come.
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