Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise announced on Tuesday that he had cancer.
The 57-year-old Louisiana resident said in a statement, “I got some blood testing done after feeling a little off for a few days earlier this week. After more testing revealed some discrepancies, I was given the diagnosis of multiple myeloma, a fairly manageable blood cancer.
The treatment, which Scalise claimed will “continue for… several months,” has already begun. He declared his intention to keep working.
As he put it, “I am incredibly grateful we were able to detect this early,” and that this illness is treatable. I am grateful to my wonderful medical staff, and I know that with God and the love and prayers of my family, friends, colleagues, and constituents, I will overcome this challenge with the same fortitude and vigor with which I have overcome every other.
In 2008, Scalise was voted into office. Despite being pursued by reports that falsely linked him to extremist groups, he advanced in the party.
In 2017, during a shooting at a congressional baseball practice in Virginia, a gunman claiming to have leftist values shot four people, including Scalise. Police were able to take out the gunman. A bullet “travelled across his pelvis, fracturing bones, injuring internal organs, and causing severe bleeding,” according to the hospital where Scalise was treated.
In his first year back at work, after the shooting, Scalise remarked, “it was one of the very few moments in my life, from the birth of my kids and marriage… that [I] will always remember.” There were times when I seriously doubted that I would ever be able to return to the House floor without the aid of my crutches.
The days were really bleak. I was shot with a bullet powerful enough to kill a bear. I couldn’t believe I was still alive after seeing the size of the bullet that hit me. To tell the truth, a lot of miracles occurred on the way.
Scalise said that he was “a strong supporter of the second amendment before the shooting and frankly, as ardent as ever after the shooting in part because I was saved by people who had guns.”
After last year’s midterm elections, Scalise, who remained loyal to former president Donald Trump as the billionaire took over the Republican party, became majority leader, the number two position in the House of Representatives behind Speaker Kevin McCarthy. On Tuesday, Republican colleagues sent their best wishes to Scalise.
No. 3 Republican in the House of Representatives Elise Stefanik of New York declared, “There is no stronger fighter than Steve Scalise.” Steve is as resilient and generous as they come, and he has overcome insurmountable obstacles. We expect nothing less from The Legend from Louisiana, who is respected by his peers and admired by the American people.
Conspiracy theorist and Georgia legislator Marjorie Taylor Greene said she was praying for Scalise and his family.challenges.”