House Majority Whip Steve Scalise On His Recovery: My ‘Phenomenal’ Doctors Rebuilt ‘Humpty Dumpty’

In mid-June, gunman James T. Hodgkinson opened fire — striking GOP Majority Whip Steve Scalise, multiple Congressional aides and two Capitol Hill cops — in a “deliberate attack” at a congressional baseball practice. In the days that followed, it quickly became apparent that the injuries of Scalise were not only the most severe but also much worse than anyone had imagined. In this 60 Minutes preview clip (for the full episode airing this weekend), Scalise begins to describe the months of surgeries and hospital stays that preceded this first, post-shooting TV interview.

The clip is brief because (of course) CBS wants everyone to tune in, but Scalise appears above alongside his wife, Jennifer. He looks back on his lengthy, still-ongoing recovery by referencing a nursery rhyme familiar to all:

“I found out later just how much damage was done internally. I mean, the femur was damaged, the hip and pelvis head, serious damage, where the bullet went through. Did some damage in areas that needed to be shored up with steel plates. And they did a phenomenal job of … rebuilding Humpty Dumpty. There was a lot of damage inside that had to get fixed.”

Last week, Scalise was undergoing therapy at a rehabilitation hospital and hoping to soon go home. All of this follows a one-month stay in a traditional hospital setting, which saw him admitted to the intensive care unit multiple times, both for the initial injury and subsequent complications, including infection. It’s been a long road for him, indeed.

Scalise’s 60 Minutes interview will air Sunday on CBS at 7:30pm EST. Here’s a clip of him receiving a standing ovation while returning to the House floor on Thursday morning.

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