Trump urges prayer for Rep. Scalise
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump urged Americans on Thursday to pray for Rep. Steve Scalise as he fights for life a day after being shot on a baseball field.
“He’s in some trouble,” Trump said during a jobs event at the White House, calling Scalise a “great fighter,” and “he’s going to be OK, I hope.”
The morning after visiting Scalise in the hospital, Trump said the congressman’s challenges are “more difficult” than first thought.
The president also asked for prayers for lobbyist Matt Mika, also critically wounded during Wednesday’s attack on Republican members of Congress who were practicing for an annual charity baseball game.
Trump said the universal support for Scalise and others wounded in the shooting might help heal the country’s many political differences. “We’ve had a very, very divided country for many years,” Trump said.
Scalise, who had a third surgery Thursday, is in critical condition after being shot in the hip. The bullet caused massive bleeding and damaged bones and internal organs.
Investigators studying the attack told the Associated Press on Thursday that shooter James Hodgkinson had obtained his rifle and handgun from licensed firearms dealers.
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 Trump. He died after officers in Scalise’s security detail fired back at him.
At the Capitol, members of both parties said they needed to soften rhetorical attacks on each other, if only to set a better example for a divided public.
Still, finger-pointing lingered as some on each side suggested the other played a larger role in the disparaging broadsides they’ve increasingly aimed at each other.
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, told the AP that Democrats would be reminded of “positions they’ve taken in the past that are not consistent with their voice for bipartisanship today.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., recounted candidate Trump’s comments prodding supporters to pummel demonstrators at rallies and said Republicans were being “sanctimonious.”