Colleagues getting ready. It is kind of lighthearted because most of the real practice has been done. All of a sudden, a shot goes out. You are not thinking it is a gunshot because, why would somebody be shooting a gun on a baseball field . By the time we figured out what was going on, i got hit. Did you know that you had got hit . Rep. Scalise i knew that my legs went out. I did necessarily know right away i did not necessarily know right away that i was hit. Play second gravel base. I heard it coming from the third base line. I never saw the shooter. There was more gunfire. I started crawling away. Pictures of a blood trail about 20 feet long and at that point, i started to pray. For some pretty heavy things and he delivered. How long were you out there . Rep. Scalise it seemed like an hour but i think it was only a few minutes. The whole thing was a 15, 20 minute period from when he started shooting and he was taken down. There were a lot of rounds, between the shooter and then dave bailey, my lead Police Officer on the National Police detail. Started engaging the shooter. Both of them were shot during the shootout but kept going at it, and kept the shooter away from us. The shooter, instead of being able to pick off all of us who were sitting ducks, he was engaged in a gunfight with david and crystal. In your book, back in the reconstruct almost minute by minute what is going on. You were laying on the field. Were you still conscious at this point . Rep. Scalise i was. When i was hearing the gunshots, for all i knew, i thought it could be me again and that would be it. The first thing that came to mind, i had a young daughter and i just had this vision of her walking down the aisle alone. Emotion that overtook me. I prayed that i would see my family again. Then i did ultimately pray that dave and crystal were able to carry out their duties properly. Overnd of gave this calm me. I had incredibly Severe Damage internally. I wasnt aware of that. I showed up at the hospital with a zero blood pressure. The trauma surgeon told me not many people make it through that. Emember everything putting everything including when the shooter went down. Brad wenstrup came to check on me. A congressman but he was a combat surgeon in iraq. He knew exactly what to do. He looked for the entry wound, he looked to see if there was an exit wound. There wasnt. He knew that was a bad thing because it meant that instead of the bullet going through, it split apart in front of me. He knew he needed to put a tourniquet on. Your femure, explodes, pelvis explodes, shredding intestines, destroying digestive tract, making everything bleed at once, whole foundation of your body imploded. Rep. Scalise just reading it, the emotions are raw. I found out later thats what happened. I didnt know my femur was shattered, i just knew that my leg gave. Gave out. When i woke up three days later, they were telling me how i didnt make it. Ultimate how i almost didnt make it. Multiple times that night i almost did make it. Multiple things worked in my favor. What is the last memory you have of that day . Rep. Scalise i remember brad and my colleagues asking what they could do to help. I was so thirsty. I had a gatorade in my bag in the dugout. One of my colleagues at the gatorade. I may have gotten 1 10 of what was poured out. Once i got on the helicopter, it seemed to me like it was taking forever. I remember thinking, i dont care where you take, just take somewhere take me, just take me somewhere. I remember asking one of the paramedics for a phone so i could call my wife. I wanted to share some words with her. Number so shegn didnt answer. It was 6 00 in the morning. It went to voicemail. She has kept it to this day. It is obviously something emotional you would tell a loved one if you thought that might be at. Be it. Did you listen to it . Rep. Scalise i did. It is tough. It is hard to focus on the negative knowing how close i was to not making it and that im here and im alive, and that so few people in my situation aid it out made it out. You were flown right up here by our office, to medstar . Rep. Scalise yes. Toas originally going to go George Washington but they dont have a helipad. With rushhour traffic, they realized i wouldnt have made it to the hospital in the ambulance. They saw helicopter coming back said,ey turned back and lets look if thats for him. Im in thes later, emergency room that room at medstar. The doctor said i had maybe another minute. One of the subtitles is countless heroes. You talk about a woman at medstar named susan kennedy. Rep. Scalise susan is a special person. We came into contact with so many angels who helped. Not only me, but my wife, jennifer, shes in new orleans. At 6 30 inxpecting the morning to get a phone call saying, your husband has been shot on a ballfield. Not thinking, what is it, just a flesh wound . Finally, the surgeon gets on the phone and says, you need to get here as soon as you can. She didnt know what to tell the kids. She didnt initially want to tell the kids what happened because she didnt know what happened. Susan kennedy was at the hospital and really helped coordinate making sure that jennifer and our family and friends who had come up could have a place to wait and see what happened to me. Susan kennedy also took on the security that came with you. Rep. Scalise obviously, i had a security detail that nobody knew if this was some kind of terrorist attack, a plotted mass shooting. You saw Capitol Police presence all around any member of congress. There was a strong showing of Law Enforcement at the hospital because no one knew what was happening and if this was some sort of larger attack. President trump and maloney came to visit and melania came to visit me that evening. All of a sudden, it was overwhelming in that emergency room. Second, we wait a have a hospital to run. They worked it out, making sure that they could do their job but the doctors and nurses could do their job. Infect fact, your wife got a fact, your wife got a call from the president. Rep. Scalise yes. Of course, later that night, he showed up at the hospital with her. Ia and helped console you have no memory of that . Rep. Scalise it wasnt until saturday that i woke up. I remembered there was a shooting and all of that. I wanted to know how dave and crystal were. I could hear the shootout. I knew that they had engaged him. I knew that somebody might have been hit. I found out they were ok, which gave me a lot of relief. Crystal was actually at the same hospital as me so we got to visit a couple of times. Semi automatic, 40 round banana clip, smith wesson, extra clip, extra magazine for this with for the smith wesson. Bulletse that these entered your body at 2000 meters per second. Rep. Scalise pretty caliber weapon pretty powerful weapon. The bullet that hit the, you could take hit me, you could take a bear down with that. A lot of miracles that day. That is what i detail in the book. Whatever your faith is, i have a strong faith and the prayers helped get me through it. I chronicled some things that happened on the ballfield that, even if you dont have a certain amount of faith, certainly there was a larger presence on that ballfield. Congressman Brad Wenstrup normally doesnt stay until the end of practice. Usuallyually closes leaves closer to 7 00 to go to the office. That morning, he found out his meeting was canceled. He was in the batting cage down the third base line. The shooter was hiding out behind the third base dugout. Brad could see everything happening. He knew, as soon as the shooter was down, he had to come check on me. Again, i wouldnt be here if he wasnt there that day but most days he wouldnt have been there because his schedule would have wrought him somewhere else. Brought him somewhere else. It isback in the game, not until page 213 that you use the shooters name. Why . Rep. Scalise i struggled with that. I wanted to tell the story of the heroes. We dont see enough in life of heroes, good things we focus on. Too often, it is the negative. I knew i had to mention the shooter and give a little bit of his background as well. That was one of those tough things. I still struggle a little bit with forgiveness. As a catholic, i believe in forgiveness. There are some good people helping me with that as well. I did feel it was appropriate to mention him. But i just wanted to tell some of the other background of the real positive things. I needed to focus on the positive. Every day, i needed to have all of my energy focused on recovering. I needed to learn how to walk again, some basic skills that we all take for granted that i needed to start over with. The strength of multipositive influences the strength of all the positive influences. You mentioned that routine and control are very important to you. Rep. Scalise you have a routine in life. In my job, it is a great job, but literally every 15 minutes your staff has you scheduled for the thing that is next. Theres a vote, you come back and you are meeting with people, going to different events. Theres a routine. All of a sudden, im laying in a hospital room and all of that is gone. You are wondering if you will be able to walk. I didnt know if my legs would again. The doctors were not sure what kind of nerve damage i had. That becomes irrelevant. I just wanted to see my wife and kids again. Mattered. Ll that it does refocus you. You have the things you do every do, or you might want to and you realize what is important. We want to show you some video from september of 2017. Tell us what we are watching. [applause] wow. It is one of the most special moments of my life. I wanted to come back to work after i knew i was going to be able. Physically, would you be able to do the schedule you normally have . If you come back, you cannot come back at 50 . You are either back or you are not. Once i realized i was able to come back to work, to walk onto that house floor and see the emotion of my colleagues, republican and democrat, showeddy cheering, it you we are part of a family. Everybody has disagreements with people. Ive built so many strong relationships. To see the love, the genuine love people have, and they were rooting for me, that i was able to walk back on that house floor incredibleas just an special moment. One of the characters in your book who recurs is a friend of yours named cedric. Who is that . Rep. Scalise he is right behind me. Cedric richmond. My colleague from new orleans. A dear friend. We are from different parties, but cedric and i got to know each other when we were both in the state house of representatives. We became dear friends and that genuine friendship has maintained itself through all of the turmoil and differences of opinion. There is jennifer. Look at that. Dave bailey right next to her. My surgeon. So many of the special people that help to get me back. Cedric was the first person to show up at the hospital. He was at the democrats practice and heard what happened. He found out before my staff knew and went straight there in his uniform. Jennifer flew up from new orleans. He helped her. Politics can be a roughandtumble sport. But life is more important in relationships are more important. If you build genuine friendships it can still be done. That day was one of those days. It might be a rare, but people can come together and care about what is great about this country. So money people reached out and prayed. Benjamin netanyahu called. They might not have known me that well, the world leaders, but they care about what congress represents. I think it reminds people of what is so special about this country. , wer all the disagreements can find we might not like each other. Ultimately we love what is great about this country and this institution. I am glad i was able to share that special moment with everybody else. To show people what is so special, and what i got to see. One active people, we could have we couldt of evil, have fixated on that, but i saw so much good. We need to see more of that in this country and in this world. One year later, june 2018, another piece of video. 2018 congressional baseball game. A ground ball to second. Scalise grounds him out at first. The entire infield, the entire field goes over to congratulate him and give him a hug. How about that . What a moment. What happened . Rep. Scalise look at the emotions of everybody. Those are already. The democrats from california who hit the ball. To show you how special all this pitch. Hits the first im playing second base. I cant hardly move, but they put me out there like a nice gesture. Start the game, and we will take him out when the real game starts. Lo and behold, he hits it to the outfield and it is right to me. I cannot really move more than a foot either way. Somehow, im able to back him the ball and it brings me down to my knee. I set ive got to make this play now. Somehow i was able to get the ball to the first base. I saw everybody just coming towards me. If you dont believe in god, how does a moment like that happen . But i see everybody coming and we all start tearing up. I was shot that day, but everyone else was shot at. Everybody had different emotions. For us, it was just such a relief. They put the game one year after the shooting to say, well, we are not going to let people let evil triumph over good. To share with everyone. It is not about a game. It is about real camaraderie. And how we can come together. Where are you in your recovery . Have you changed any of your policy decisions on guns or medical care . Has not changed things. It has fortified what is important in life. To me, making sure you are focused on the things that matter in your life. I want to make sure we have a worldclass Health Care System so that everybody has the opportunity that i had. Is still the shining beacon for health care and we need to make sure it stays that way. And so many other things that are important. I still am using a crutch to walk. I am down to one. I started with the scooter because i could not walk on crutches. Then i was on two crutches. My goal is by the end of this year to be able to walk without crutches. I have permanent damage in my left foot. That nerve damage im not going to be sitting worldclass records in running. I can still move around better. I am doing physical therapy a few times a week. That helps a lot. The physical therapist and occupational therapist, i have put them through the ringer. You have to keep focusing on Getting Better every day, and i am. I have a lot of people praying for me. I appreciate those prayers. That really does give me the strength to keep Getting Better. By the end of this year, i will be able to walk again without crutches. Maybe i can run a 10k like i used to. I am just lucky to be alive. Crystal . Vid bailey and rep. Scalise they are both back on the Capitol Police force. David is back as a team lead again. What a special person both of them are. Crystal is back on Capitol Police working in some other capacity. To see her in uniform again we stay in touch. That bond from that day will never weaken. The book is really about something positive that happened. All the positive things that happened around everybody has something bad happens to us every day. We also have good things that happen. We need to focus on the good things. That gives us the strength to keep Getting Better. Republican representative Steve Scalise is the author of this book. Thank you for joining us. Rep. Scalise thank you for having me. Announcer 27 republicans and 44 democratic members of congress will take the field for wednesdays congressional baseball game. Game time is at 7 05, but live coverage will begin 20 minutes before first pitch at 6 45 p. M. Eastern on cspan two. The complete guide to congress is now available. It has lots of details about the house and senate for the current session of congress. Contact and bio information about every senator and representative. Plus, information about congressional committees, state governors, and the cabinet. The 2019 congressional directory is a handy spiralbound guide. Order your copy from the cspan online store for 1895. 18. 95. Here is a look at live coverage tuesday. On cspan, the house is back at 10 00 a. M. Eastern for general speeches with legislative business at noon. Members will finish work on the 2020 spending package that covers the v. A. , justice department, transportation, and housing. The senate is back at 10 00 a. M. Eastern to resume debate on a bill that sets 2020 defense policy and programs. On cspan3, the head of the Transportation Security Administration testifies on capitol hill about potential vulnerabilities and other priorities for the agency. Later in the day, we will hear from federal and state Emergency Management officials about Natural Disaster preparedness efforts at a House Oversight and reform subcommittee hearing. The Supreme Court has unanimously struck down a centuryold provision of federal law that bans registration of proposed trademarks that are, quote, scandalous or immoral. Designera streetwear launched a brand whose name sounds like a form of the f w ord. An Appeals Court agreed it was thedalous, but ruled provision violated freedom of speech. Supreme Court Justices upheld that ruling with several partially concurring