WASHINGTON _ The injured House Majority Whip Steve Scalise wasn't far from his colleagues' thoughts Tuesday, as several of them wished him well and provided impromptu status reports on the Louisiana Republican's condition.
Scalise "is doing a lot better," Speaker Paul D. Ryan said at an event at the National Association of Manufacturers on Tuesday.
"He's responding, breathing on his own," the Wisconsin Republican said.
Scalise was among those injured by a gunman at the Republican baseball team practice on June 14.
House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday that he visited with Scalise in the morning, and the Maryland Democrat said the two had a "good conversation."
"We share the view that this was an attack on everybody in the Congress. It was an attack on the Congress. It was an attack on the democracy and we ought to all be united in opposing anything like that," Hoyer said.
Hoyer also joined calls for lawmakers, politicians and pundits to tone down their rhetoric.
"I think all of us need to think carefully before we say something and when we say something to say something in terms of substance rather than attacks on one another, or demeaning one another _ either because of policy or who we are," Hoyer said. "Because those communications are heard by a very broad audience, some of whom are motivated to do, obviously, very bad things."
Scalise's deputy, North Carolina Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, organized a blood drive Tuesday and Thursday for the victims of Wednesday's shooting.
