Rep. Scalise undergoes more surgery
WASHINGTON (AP) – 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, President Donald Trump said Thursday. The House lurched back to business in a somber mood as law enforcement tracked the path the shooter traveled to his ballfield 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, Ill., 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 the attack. Authorities also were going over a cellphone, computer and camera taken from Hodgkinson’s white van, which was parked near the ballfield.
So far, investigators have not linked Hodgkinson to any radical groups, said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.
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 RepublicansDemocrats baseball game. Richmond, who plays for the Democratic team, said he had visited the hospital twice and planned to go again before Thursday night’s game at Nationals Park.
Four miles north of the Capitol, Scalise, 51, lay at Medstar Washington Hospital Center with a rifle wound in his left hip that shattered bones, tore organs and caused severe bleeding. The House’s No. 3 GOP leader completed his third surgery late Thursday, and a person close to the lawmaker said he remained in critical condition.
“He’s in some trouble,” said Trump, who had visited late Wednesday. “He’s going to be OK. We hope.”
Scalise was among five people wounded when a shooter sprayed rifle fire at congressional Republicans practicing on a diamond in Alexandria.
Also hurt but released from hospitals were two Capitol Police officers, David Bailey and Crystal Griner, and House GOP aide Zack Barth. Lobbyist Matt Mika was shot multiple times and critically injured and remained hospitalized.
Following a day that saw most congressional business canceled, the House approved legislation offering health insurance tax credits to some veterans while committees pondered federal land management, cybersecurity and more. The Capitol’s usual partisan combativeness, though not absent, was less pointed than usual, and warm words were exchanged between some lawmakers with starkly opposing political philosophies.