NEW ORLEANS — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., the last major American political figure to be shot, said he texted former President Donald Trump following the attempt on his life at Saturday’s rally and that Trump texted back.
Scalise did not share the content of the text, but he recalls his own shooting on the Congressional baseball field in 2017. Scalise was badly wounded by a shooter and was rushed to the hospital and nearly lost his life. He was in a coma for three days.
Scalise said he is upset about what happened and plans to hold congressional hearings on the security setup for the rally. He said that Trump’s Secret Service detail had asked for additional security for recent events. He said the fact that someone with a high-powered weapon was able to get so close to the rally is a real security problem.
“By all reports he was on top of a rooftop right next to the rally. How does a shooter, a person with a gun, get on a rooftop right next to the president of the United States, just a few hundred feet away and not being stopped,” Scalise said to WWL Louisiana reporter Paul Murphy.
“Clearly this was an assassination attempt.”
Scalise said his own shooting definitely gives him some insight into the concern and chaos that follows such an incident, but he also gave former president Trump praise for his concern about Scalise in the 2017 incident. At the time, Scalise was the House Majority Whip.
“He came to the hospital and checked on me and consoled my family… I got to see that side of him. That’s a side of him you don’t get to see as much, but I saw it.”
Scalise also said that the rhetoric around the 2024 presidential campaign has raised the stakes and that some people who aren’t so well grounded can be goaded into action.
“It only takes one lunatic,” he said.