Scalise returns to bipartisan cheers
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise made an emotional return to Capitol Hill Thursday, just over three months after he was shot during a practice for the annual Congressional baseball game.
Scalise hobbled to his seat on the House floor at about 11 a.m. to sustained applause, loud hoots and cheers from colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
“Wow. You have no idea how great this feels to be back here at work in the people’s house. I’m definitely a living example that miracles really do happen,” Scalise told the chamber.
“As you can imagine, these last 3¹/2 months have been pretty challenging times for me and my family, but if you look at the outpouring of love, of warmth, of prayer. My gosh, [my wife] Jennifer and I have been overwhelmed with all of that outpouring. It’s given us the strength to get through all of this and to get to this point today.”
Scalise credited God — and the Capitol police who shot and killed the attacker, as well as a congressman who applied a tourniquet to his wounded leg — for his survival and recovery.
He praised Officers David Bailey and Crystal Griner, who returned fire and killed the shooter, James Hodgkinson, during the June 14 attack in the DC suburb of Alexandria, Va., that injured six, including the two officers.
Rep. Steve Scalise met a bipartisan standing ovation on his return to the US Capitol Thursday, proof that members of Congress can still unite on something.
Scalise is recovering from near-fatal wounds inflicted by a domestic terrorist who’d targeted the June 14 congressional Republican baseball practice. Shots injured three others less seriously.
He credited Capitol Police Officers Crystal Griner and David Bailey for saving his life — as well as the doctors who made him living proof “that miracles do happen.”
“You have no idea how great this feels to be back here at work in the people’s House,” the 51-year-old Louisianan told a packed chamber. He’ll continue in outpatient rehab, but he’s back on the job, lining up voters for GOP bills as majority whip.
Which will no doubt have his Democratic colleagues viewing him a bit less cheerily. But, for a day, the members of Congress were normal men and women cheering one of their own. As Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi put it, “Today, we are Team Scalise.”
Scalise’s recovery marks the final defeat of what he rightly called “an attack on the institution of our Congress and our government.” Perhaps the politicians will remember Thursday’s hugs and do a better job of hanging together against the temptation to hate.