Nearly four months after a gunman opened fire on a group of lawmakers practicing for the annual congressional baseball game, Representative Steve Scalise, who suffered life-threatening injuries in the attack, returned to Congress on Thursday.
“You have no idea how this feels, to be back at work in the people’s House,” Scalise said, after entering the chamber to a standing ovation. “I’m definitely a living example that miracles really do happen.”
During his remarks, Scalise singled out U.S. Capitol Police officers David Bailey, who was in the chamber, and Crystal Griner. Bailey and Griner were shot the same morning as Scalise, but they still managed to bring down the shooter, 66-year-old James T. Hodgkinson, and prevent a “massacre.”
Scalise “will be resuming his work at the Capitol,” his office said Thursday, adding that the Louisiana representative is still working his way through rehab. The 51-year-old House Majority Whip was struck in the hip by a single bullet on the morning of June 14. As he tells CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in his first interview since the shooting, his “femur was shattered.”
“The hip and pelvis had serious damage where the bullet went through and, you know, did some damage to areas that had to be shored up with steel plates,” he said. “And then they did a phenomenal job of rebuilding — you know, kind of the, rebuilding Humpty-Dumpty. I mean, there were, there was a lot of damage inside that had to get fixed.”
