EXCLUSIVE — House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) is still dealing with the physical repercussions of being shot by a political extremist five years ago at a practice for the Congressional Baseball Game, but the Louisiana Republican won’t let the injuries he incurred prevent him from participating in this year’s game.
Scalise, who is set to be the lead-off batter at Thursday night’s game, sustained near-fatal injuries, undergoing multiple lifesaving surgeries and blood transfusions following the attack, in which he, a member of his security detail, Crystal Griner, congressional aide Zack Barth, and lobbyist Matt Mika were shot at by gunman James Hodgkinson, who fired nearly 70 rounds at GOP lawmakers on a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2017.
HOUSE MINORITY WHIP STEVE SCALISE RAISES CONCERNED ABOUT SCALED-BACK SEMICONDUCTOR BILL
5 years ago my colleagues & I were attacked playing baseball—because we’re Republicans.
We didn’t let it stop us then & nothing will stop us now.
It’s been a long journey, but tonight we play the Congressional Baseball Game—5 years stronger.
Full Video: https://t.co/GVZPIpscCc pic.twitter.com/znbz1bdc35
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) July 28, 2022
The Louisiana lawmaker said that after years of working both physically and mentally to recover, he’s worked to come to a place to forgive his shooter and is grateful to be alive and able to participate in the bipartisan event.
“I mean, I feel a lot better, you know. I still do physical therapy once a week — most of the work on strength imbalances on the left side of my foot where the bulk of the residual damage still is,” he told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “But I mean, for all practical purposes, I’ve fully healed and am very lucky to be alive, so I don’t take anything for granted. I still love going out to practice, and I’ll be the lead-off batter tonight, so that’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Scalise said he’s still aiming to get himself back to a place where he can fully participate without assistance from pinch runners in the coming years.
“I can’t run the bases right now — that’s a long-term goal, to try to be able to do that, but we will have pinch runners that we’ll use. But at least I get to go out there and have fun,” he said.
While the shooting has led to life-altering conditions for the congressman, he noted that the incident has brought attention to the gravity of political threats of violence, an area Republicans hope to address if they take back the majority in November, and brought more attention to the game, which raises a significant amount of money for local charities, such as the Boys and Girls Club of Washington.
“I think probably the biggest change is that the game [has], I think, got an elevated profile, which is a good thing because we’ve been able to raise a lot more money for local charities. Before, we would raise in the hundreds of thousands, which is good money,” he continued.
“But now, today, we broke the record for —they’ve already announced what we’re going to raise tonight: It’s going to be over $1.5 million. So there’s some really good programs for young people. The Washington Nationals, who are a great partner in this, let us use the major league ballpark — I mean, we’re going to have over 20,000 people there.”
Scalise said he believes the game has helped forge bipartisan friendships, which he feels carries over in helping members work across the aisle.
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“It’s a good way for us to build relationships with Democrats that we otherwise wouldn’t even know. [Rep.] Raul Ruiz [D-CA] was the batter — the first batter — when I came back a year later, and they had me out at second base just, you know, waving to just have fun and go off. And the very first pitch, he gets a right to second base, he’s running down the baseline — I get the ball somehow, and I’m on the ground. Now he’s just barreling down. I’m like, I’ve got to throw him out now, so I was able to make the throw … you know, as we’re all celebrating,” he said.
“He comes over after I throw him out, and we were all in tears, and he’s just hugging and we’re all hugging each other,” he continued. “It’s just another side of this business that people don’t see where they think we all hate each other, and we don’t. We fight very aggressively on the issues we care about, but we actually do build good relationships, and the game is one of those conduits to really help bridge some of the partisan divides that probably doesn’t get talked about enough. And, frankly, it’s more things like that we need to do more often.”
