Rep. Steve Scalise returns to congress after being shot

the chair wishes to mark the return to the chamber of our dear friend and
colleague from Louisiana mr. Steve Scalise
our prayers have been answered his bravery and his family strength had been
such an inspiration to this house and to the people it serves America is grateful
for this moment the chair now proudly asks for what purpose does the gentleman
from Louisiana seek recognition
the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he may consume oh well thank you
mr. speaker you have no idea how great this feels to be back here at work in
the people's house
as you can imagine these last three and a half 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 Jennifer and I've been overwhelmed with
all of that outpouring and it's given us the strength to get through all of this
and to get to this point today and it starts with God
when I was laying out on that ball field the first thing I did once I was down
and I couldn't move anymore as I just started to pray and I will tell you it
gave me an unbelievable sense of calm knowing that at that point it was in
God's hands but I prayed for very specific things and I'll tell you pretty
much every one of those prayers was answered and and they were some pretty
challenging prayers I was putting in God's hands but he he really did deliver
for me and my family and it just gives you that renewed faith in understanding
that the power prayer is something that you just cannot underestimate
so I am definitely a living example that miracles really do happen the first
place I want to go to to thank true angels along the way starts with the
United States Capitol Police
when I was elected Majority Whip as you know the elected leadership has a
security detail and if anybody ever wondered why we're signed security
detail I surely found out that day and let me
tell you I want to specifically mention crystal Greiner and David Bailey
crystal and David were signed to my security detail that morning and day in
and day out they're they're part of our family Jennifer and I truly do treat him
as part of our family because they're with us everywhere we go and on that day
it was no different On June 14th they came 6:30 in the morning we arrived
at the baseball field just to play and practice for a game of charity baseball
and nobody would have suspected what ensued and yet as soon as those shots
were fired I'll tell you when I was laying on the ground one of the things I
prayed for is that David and crystal would be successful in carrying out
their duties and both David and crystal are incredibly well trained incredibly
for professional but when I was laying there not long after the first couple of
shots were fired I could hear a different caliber weapon
and that told me that they had immediately engaged the shooter and let
me tell you if they didn't act so quickly and even after being shot both
themselves continued to engage the shooter and ultimately got him down
which not only saved my life but saved the life of a lot of other people that
are here in this chamber today crystal couldn't be with us today but David
Bailey is with us David you are my hero you saved my life and everything thank
you so much
Thanks Tiger blood I also think those thanks to
a lot of the people that were on the field with me right after the shooter
was down a lot of my colleagues came and ran to come check on me and one I want
to mention in particular is one of those things that Jennifer and I call the the
little miracles that happened that day and throughout the next few months of
our recovery happen to have Brad Wenstrup on the field that day and he
was one of the first to come to my side and as you know Brad's not only a doctor
but he's a decorated Army Ranger who served in combat in one of his roles and
missions was to take care of people that were wounded before they went off on the
helicopter to go get prepared who would have thought that God would have put
Brad out there on that field with me because the tourniquet he applied many
will tell you save my life so that I can actually make it to the hospital in time
with all the blood loss so Brad where you at
once I arrived at MedStar Hospital I was a little bit out of it at that point but
luckily I ended up in the trusted hands of dr. Jack Sava and his great team over
at MedStar they gave me a second chance at life and through many many surgeries
where my life was truly in the balance a few of those they did a wonderful job at
making sure that I was well taken care of and ultimately made it through that
point so I could get to dr. golden and his team who actually put me back
together again which was quite a task to the point where I'm actually able to
relearn how to walk again so I doctored dr. Sava dr. golden thank
you for being here and thanks for your team
above all else I want to thank my lovely wife Jennifer
those who know or know how strong Jennifer is she's an incredibly warm and
loving wife and she's an incredible mother to our children and somehow
through the late nights and the surgeries and all the other things she
managed to hold our family together to make sure that Harrison and Madison were
cared for as well and still to this day she's not only by my side but she's also
serving as a great mother I am lucky to have you thanks for being here love you
sweetheart
and while it's been a challenge in time for my family the thing that really
overwhelmed us from the start was the outpouring of love and warmth and
prayers from Southeast Louisiana the district that I represent we saw blood
drives at st. Catherine we saw prayer groups at First United Methodist Church
in Slidell but what we also saw were prayer groups and well-wishes being
given from people that we'd never met before throughout all of your districts
and you shared it with me and it was one of those things that was hard for us to
completely comprehend that you had people from all walks of life that had
never met me before and yet they saw what had happened and they just wanted
to offer prayers and let me tell you - each and every one of you and please
convey it to your constituents and I sure convey it to my constituents back
home that warmth and love gave us just incredible strength that you can't
imagine during some really really difficult times and so that is one more
example of the power of Prayer something else I saw firsthand wasn't a surprise
to me but it was the outpouring of love from you my colleagues both Republican
and Democrat I know right after the shooting we were practicing on the
Republican side the Democrats were practicing too and my colleague and
friend and sometimes archrival in baseball from back home in New Orleans
unfortunately the star of the game too many times Cedric Richmond somehow
figured out which hospital I was sent to and got there probably the first person
there on the scene in his baseball uniform to check on me so many others of
you again both Republican and Democrat reached out in ways that I can't express
the gratitude and how much it means to me Jennifer and our whole family it
really does show the warm side of Congress that very few people get to see
and so I want to thank each and every one of you for that you don't know how
much it meant to me and when I come back into this chamber here today it just see
in the faces of all of you it just means more to me than you can
imagine so thanks for all of that love and support Oh
a lot of people ask did this event change you and I think those you who
know me know I'm a I'm an optimistic person I'm you know just a fun-loving
person I'm from south Louisiana and we believe you work hard and you play hard
and Jawad 2:v is an event like this gonna really change that and and the
first thing I can tell you is yes it changed me but not in the ways you might
think it's it's only strengthened my faith in God and it's really
crystallized what what shows up is the goodness in people I got to see that
goodness in people and so while some people might focus on a tragic event and
an evil act to me all I remember are the thousands of acts of kindness and love
and warmth that came out of this and kept me going through all of it and
again just re-emphasize just how wonderful most people are and how how
much compassion there is out there and finally I want to talk about something
that I guess hit me and probably struck me more than anything that I was not
expecting and that was the outpouring of love and support from world leaders
people have met and have known you Benjamin Netanyahu and I have had some
incredible conversations from the hospital the Theresa Mamie reached out
the King Abdullah of Jordan who so many of us have met reached out but other
world leaders also reached out people I had never met before and that touched me
in a different way because each and every one of us we come here and and we
fight for the things that we believe in I have passionate beliefs for some
reason some of you don't agree with all of those
but it's so important that we come up here we are the people's house this is
the place where these ideas are supposed to be debated and we fight through those
issues but ultimately we come together on whatever the board shows is 218 if
you can put the majority together that's what rules the day it's so
important that is we're having those political battles we don't make them
personal because one of the things I saw and I guess this is the thing that that
really kept coming back to me as I try to to make sense of all this and
comprehend the outpouring of love that I saw it kept coming back to those world
leaders you know why would leaders from around the world that I'd never met
before reach out and say Steve we hope you can get back to work we hope you can
come through this and what it says is sure they cared about my well-being but
more than that they saw this as an attack on all of us they saw this as an
attack on the institution of the United States Congress and our government and
they really count on us to be successful look we all know the United States is
the leader of the free world it's something that we've frankly had the
honor as a country to hold as a distinction for generations and yet when
you look at that title what it really means is that there are people all
around the world that want freedom maybe that have freedom but they know the
United States being strong is critical to the rest of the world having the
opportunity for freedom
but that's why I'm so excited to be back because as we're fighting through the
issues of the day let's just keep in mind that we rise above the challenges
of the day and understand that it's not just us in our constituents and the
country the United States that's counting on us being successful people
all around the world that believe in freedom are counting on us as well and
we will deliver for them that's why I am so honored to be back here in the house
serving with you god bless each and every one of you and god bless the
United States of America
mr. speaker with that I yield back the balance of my time
gentleman time gentleman yields back the balance is time for what purpose is the
minority leader seek recognition Thank You mr. Speaker I ask unanimous
consent to speak out of order to join you and thanking God for the return of
our colleague Steve Scalise and to do so heaven do so in such a strong way your
brief mr. speaker I'll be even briefer thank God our prayers are answered I
take great pride in Steve because we're both Italian Americans and I think
that's a sort of some of his strength right Steve I do want to say how proud
we are of Jennifer Harrison and Madison and of your staff and of our first
responders our Capitol Police who took such a good care of you but if it as you
said an attack when you was attack one all we all came through this
magnificently because of your strength so the power of Steve Scalise the day we
came to the floor when you weren't here we were all team Scalise today we are
team Scalise thank you for being so wonderful god bless you
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Rep. Steve Scalise returns to congress after being shot

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