WASHINGTON, D.C.— House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends this morning to talk about his road to recovery following last June’s Congressional Baseball Game shooting and to preview the great story of economic growth President Trump has to tell tonight at the State of the Union following his first full year in office.
On his road to recovery:
“I’m doing really good, thanks. I had the surgery, two weeks I was in the hospital again, and I just got out. It was a planned surgery to do some more repairs of the damage, and it went really well. My doctors felt really good about it so I feel good about it.”
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“[My return to the Capitol] was a special day, a day I will never forget. I wanted to go back to work so bad. You know, you’re in the hospital three and a half months, and to be able to come back that way and have so much love and support from Republicans and Democrats. It was a special day.”
On the positive economic story the President has to tell:
“I think one of the things the President needs to do is to remind people just how successful these tax cuts have already been. Every day it seems like another company is giving bonuses and pay raises.
“Exxon [announced a] $50 billion investment in America. Friday you had FedEx, Thursday you had Home Depot. But to make the connection between just what we did – we did something incredibly big just a few weeks ago, and it’s already having a positive impact on the lives of families. But, a lot of people back home don’t hear about it in their communities, and so for the President to make that connection and to talk about the vision. And I think what’s real important, over the last eight years we saw millions of people just give up on working. They gave up on the country because the economy was doing so poorly. I’d like to see the President encourage those people to get back into the workforce because we are going to have a shortage of workers with all of this great economic success because of what President Trump did on these great tax cuts. We are going to need more workers. Let’s get these people off the sidelines and into the workforce and become part of the American dream.”
On immigration reform:
“I think we are close to getting a deal. Obviously, you saw the President lay out a framework the other day. We in the House have been working on our own working group. We have a lot of different views from within our conference, but the Whip team’s office, one of the things that we do is help facilitate, and I’ve got the two chairmen, Chairman Goodlatte and Chairman McCaul, meeting with all the members of our conference, starting today on the bill that Chairman Goodlatte has. And then let’s start seeing if we can get a consensus on everything from border security – and it has to start with border security and building the wall. And then addressing the DACA population, and everything in between.”
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“What I would like to see is a legal status, but then the pathway to citizenship has always been there, and there’s a line. There are millions of people waiting to come to this country. We always forget America has the most generous immigration laws already. We let a million people in our country legally. Get in line like everybody else, and I think that’s a really good answer. You can you stay here while you’re doing it.”
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“This is where the negotiation starts. Obviously, we’ve got differences on both sides, but let’s come together. We’re not that far apart, believe it or not, and there is a deal to be made. President Trump wants to get this worked out.”
On his predictions for tonight’s address:
“It’s going to be a great night for America. President Trump, I think, you’re going to see a lot of standing ovations because there is a lot to be proud about with what’s happening in this country.”