Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) believes “God performed miracles” on a fateful June day in 2017, when a deranged gunman attacked him and his fellow congressmen.
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Scalise, 56, and fellow GOP lawmakers found themselves ducking for cover June 14, 2017, when a man targeted them and began shooting as they practiced for the Congressional Baseball Game at Eugene Simpson Park in Alexandria, Virginia.
“That day, I was just fighting for my life,” Scalise told Fox News as he practiced ahead of Thursday night’s game, an annual, bipartisan tradition in Washington, D.C., that raises money for charity.
Scalise was shot in the hip and faced serious wounds requiring a number of surgeries. The congressman recalled arriving at the hospital without any blood pressure and feeling as if he was about to die.
But the House Minority Whip thankfully survived and returned to Congress in September 2017 to rousing applause and a standing ovation.
Looking back, he told Fox News he believes miracles unfolded amid that attack.
“God performed miracles that day,” Scalise said. “If you don’t believe in miracles, talk to me.”
He also credited his friend Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) with creating a tourniquet that saved his life and afforded time for rescue workers to transport him to the hospital. Additionally, he praised Capitol Police Officers David Bailey and Crystal Griner, who bravely stopped the gunman, who was killed.
Wenstrup told Fox he relied that day on skills he learned while serving in Iraq in the Army Reserve to help save his friend.
“I knew right away that he was in much more trouble than people thought,” Wenstrup told the outlet.
In a separate “Fox & Friends” interview last month reflecting on the fifth anniversary of the shooting, Scalise said he never takes his survival for granted.
“[There’s] not a day I don’t wake up where I don’t thank God that I’m alive and get to do the things I love doing and spend time with my family,” he said. “So, I never take that for granted. I know every time, it’s easy for people to take the simple things in life for granted. Don’t ever do that because you don’t know how long it’s going to last.”
The congressman said he still goes to physical therapy once a week and hopes to work toward being able to run again.
Scalise’s reliance on God again shined through in that interview, as he credited the Lord for his survival and help on the field that day.
“God was on that ball field that day,” he said. “There were miracles that no one can explain except that God was there protecting us, and I thank God every day that He was there to look out for all of us.”
As for Thursday night’s Congressional Baseball Game, Republicans ended up triumphing over the Democrats 10-0.
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