Scalise faces ‘difficult’ path to recovery
WASHINGTON — In critical condition and undergoing repeated surgery, GOP House Whip Steve Scalise faces a “much more difficult” struggle to recover from his gunshot wound than first thought, U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday. The House lurched back to business in a sombre mood as law enforcement tracked the path the shooter travelled to his ball field carnage.
Investigators studying Wednesday’s attack at a suburban Virginia park said shooter James Hodgkinson had obtained his rifle and handgun from licensed firearms dealers. Capitol Police said they had “no evidence to suggest that the purchases were not lawful.”
Hodgkinson, a Belleville, Illinois, home inspector who had been living out of his van near the park, had a social media page filled with criticism of Republicans and the Trump administration. He died after officers in Scalise’s security detail fired back at him.
The FBI said it was investigating the shooter’s “activities and social media impressions in the months leading up to yesterday’s incident.” Authorities also were going over a cellphone, computer and camera taken from Hodgkinson’s white van, which was parked near the ball field.
Colleagues who visited Scalise at a Washington hospital sounded generally upbeat — but spoke more in terms of hopes than the confident predictions of the immediate aftermath a day earlier.
Democrat Cedric Richmond, a fellow Louisiana congressman, said as many others did that Scalise is a fighter. “I’m prayerful he will pull through, and I hope he does.” he said.
Scalise was fielding ground balls at second base Wednesday when he was shot at a practice for an annual Republicans-Democrats baseball game. He was among five people wounded in the shootings.
Seven kilometres north of the Capitol, Scalise, 51, lay in critical condition at Medstar Washington Hospital Center with a rifle wound in his left hip that shattered bones, damaged organs and caused severe bleeding. The House’s No. 3 GOP leader underwent his third surgery Thursday