I remember waking up and excited about practice the annual congressional baseball game. A great tradition. I was Just Announced to be the second base starter. You get out there early in the morning and working with your colleagues and its lighthearted and practice has already been done and we go through the motion getting ready for the big game then all of a sudden shots rang out i think its a gunshot because why would somebody be shooting a gun on a baseball field . By the time we figured out what was going on i was hit and i went down. Did you know you were hit . I knew my legs gave out. I didnt necessarily instantly felt i was hit but something hit me but not a bullet. When my legs went out and i was down on the field i just started crawling away i never saw the shooter but i knew thats where it was coming from so i just started to crawl away and then after 20 feet i see pictures in my arms gave out and then at that point i just prayed to god and he delivered. It was only about three minutes it seemed like an hour maybe it took place in a 15 or 20 minute. That there was a lot of gunfire almost 100 rounds between the intruder starting with my lee detail officer and crystal who was on my team that day she started engaging the shooter and then there was a shoot out but they still kept going out on at it we were just sitting ducks but he was engaged with the fight with david and crystal and other virginia Law Enforcement showed up and he took him down. In your book you reconstruct what was going on but you are laying there are you still conscious at this point . I was i could hear everything in fact when i heard the gunshots so when i was praying i was praying for i have a young daughter and i just had a vision of her walking down the aisle alone. Please let her walk down the aisle alone. It was a motion that overtook me and then i was scared i would never see my family again and then a prayed david and crystal could carry out their duties properly. Gave a calm over me i didnt have pain i had Severe Damage internally i was not aware of that i was losing almost all of my blood i got to the hospital was zero Blood Pressure my trauma surgeon very few people make it through that. I remember everything including when the shooter went down brad the congressman from ohio also a combat surgeon from ohio who served in iraq dealt with these injuries in the battlefield. So thank god he was there because he knew exactly what to do. You look to see if there was an exit wound so that would seem like a good thing he knew it was bad because that meant instead of going straight through it had broken apart into hundreds of pieces to shred through my organs causing internal damage he put attorney caps on to stop the bleeding that literally allowed me to live long enough to make it to the hospital. Your fever explodes your pelvis explodes. Severing the veins and slicing open and shredding intestines. Destroying the digestive track making everything that once the whole foundation of your body imploded the whole foundation of your body imploded i found out later i didnt know at the time thats what happened i didnt know my femur was shattered i just knew my leg gave out and when i woke up three days later out of a coma thats when they started to tell me what had gone on inside of me and how i almost didnt make it multiple times that night the first night but a lot of prayers and surgeons and it worked in my favor. But it was rough. What is the last memory you have of that day . I vividly remember brad and my colleagues asking what they could do to help. I was so thirsty i had a gatorade in my bag in the dugout one of my colleagues got the gatorade i was only not even getting one tenth of what was poured out but it gave me enough energy to keep going. Once i got on the helicopter , it seemed like it was taking forever i remember thinking i dont care where you take me just take me somewhere. And then i asked one of the paramedics for a phone so i could call my wife forgot that point i just felt like things were fading away i just wanted to share some final words with her. Was a virginia phone so she did not answer it was six in the morning in new orleans. I left her a voicemail. P here from your office. Thats right, thats where they took me. I never heard of it. They were initially going to take me to george washington. It feels closer that you can only get there by ambulance and then of course it is 7 30 in the morning, rushhour traffic as you can imagine the started doing and realized i wouldnt have made it to the hospital and they saw a helicopter coming back to instead lets turn back and see and sure enough it landed on the field and four minutes later im in the emergency room. In our lands with the kids. This is an traile trailer lifethreateninon trailerlifeta flesh wound and finally the surgeon gets on the phone and says you need to get here as soon as you can. She was able to get a flight locally to take the kids up to dc but she didnt know what to tell the kids and she didnt initially wanted told them what happened and didnt want to alarm them but ultimately some friends helped take care of the kids into Susan Kennedy was at the hospital and helped coordinate making sure that the they could have a place to kind of wait and see whats happened. Host she also took on the security that came with you. Guest when i came up there was a security detail what they were nothat theywere not aware. Emu use all Capital Police presence all around any member of congress and they just kind of shut things down so when they went to the hospital, there was a strong showing of Law Enforcement at the hospital because again nobody really knew what was happening and this was some kind of a larger attack so there were a lot of police around and then president of trump came to visit me the same evening and you added the secret service and the next thing you know it was overwhelming that emergency room so they said wait a minute, you have to get out we actually have a hospital we are running and taking care of people. You cant get in the way. They kind of went back and forth but she did a good job of making sure they could do their job, but the doctors and nurses could do their job as bob. Host your wife, jennifer in new orleans got a call from the president. Guest yes, she did. He called to say that he was praying for me and for her and offered any assistance he could have and then of course like i said later that night i showed up at the hospital and hope to console her. I have no memory of that. I was unconscious for a few days. It wasnt until saturday but i kind of woke up and came out of my coma. I didnt know how bad i was a. 9 millimeters for the rifle and an extra magazine for the smith and wesson, that is what the shooter had. You write that these bullets and hurt your body at 2,000 meters per second. Guest pretty powerful weapon. The bullet that hit me you could take a bear down with that and when i saw the size of the bullet later they showed me and said how am i alive it does make you wonder, but again a lot of miracles that they and that is one that i detailed in the book. Whatever your faith is i have a strong faith and it helps get me through it but i had chronicled to some very specific things that happened on the field that even if you dont have the same kind of faith at the time you get to the fifth and sixth one there was a larger presence on the field. Congressman wenstrup usually didnt stay until the end of practice. Guest he usually has a meeting around 8 00 and please closer to seven to shower and get ready and go to the office. He found out his meeting was canceled and so he decided to stay for a little extra practice the shooter was hiding out behind the dugout so brad was out of the line of fire but could see everything happening. He knew as soon as the shooter went down you have to check on me to see just what had happened to see if he could do something to help. One of the many miracles. Host back in the game isnt until page 213 you use the shooters name. Why is that . Guest i struggled with the bat. I knew to tell the story properly i wanted to tell it through the eyes of the heroes and everybody else on the ball field because we dont see enough in the life of just reallife heroes and d the good things that we know about that we focus on because too often it is the negative but i also knew i had to mention the shooter and give a little bit of his background as well, so ultimately i did. That is one of those tough things i still struggle a little bit about forgiveness because as a catholic i do believe in forgiveness. I am not quite there, but im working to get their and there are people helping me with that but i did feel it was appropriate to mention him. To get better i needed to focus on the positive. I didnt look back and that helped me a lot. I needed to have my energy focused because i needed to learn how to walk again and learn about the basic skills we take for granted that i needed to start over with and was able to in the strength of so many positive influences that got me through it and that is why i just focus on the positive. Host you mention that mentit routine and control are very important to you. Everybody has things that they do. My job in congress is a great job but you ar your scheduled wh literally every 18 minutes for the things that have to happen next and then theres the vote. You come back and you are meeting with people and going to different event. So it is a routine in a lot of ways but all of a sudden im laying in a hospital room and all of that is gone and you were just wondering if you are going to be able to walk. I had tubes coming out of me, i didnt know if my legs were going to move, i couldnt move my arms are the first few days and they were not sure what damage i had so immediately all of that becomes irrelevant. I wanted to see my wife and kids again and i was able to intend that was just all that mattered at that point so that does we focus you on whats important in life. In september of 2017 tell us what we are watching here. Its one of the most special moments in my life. I wanted to come back to work. What will you be able to do with the schedule that you normally have and if you come back you cant come back at 50 , you are either back or you are not and once i realized i was going to be able to come back to work just to be able to walk onto the house floor and see the emotion of my colleagues republican and democrat everybody standing and cheering i it showed me we are part of a family. Everybody has disagreements with people but i just felt so many strong relationships and the genuine love people have that were rooting for me. Its just an incredibly special moments. The characters in your book is a friend of yours named cedric. Who is back . Guest from different parties we got to know each other when we were both in the state house of representatives and became different and that genuine friendship has maintained itself through all the turmoil sent differences of opinion. The first person to show up at the hospital he was at the democrats practice. He went straight there in his uniform and flew up from new orleans. Politics can be a rough and tumble sport life is much more important and relationships are much more important if you build a genuine friendships that can still be dark and i think that was one of those days it might be rare but it shows just how people come together and care about whats great about this country there were so many people that reached out and prayed and called me benjamin netanyahu. I talked about the World Leaders that might not have known me that while personally but they care about what we represent, and i think it reminded people with very special about this country. Host after all the disagreements and things that we can find that we might not like each other about, ultimately we love what is great about this country and this institution. Im glad that i was able to share that moment with everybody else and to show people just what is so special and what i got to see some of the good in people. I was able to see good from loved ones, strangers alike and i think we need to see more of that in this country and in this world. One year later im at june, 2018. Another piece of video we want to show you. The congressional baseball game. The entire infield goes over to congratulate him and give him a big hug. What a moment. Look at the emotion look at the emotions of everybody. They put m brought me up to y second base. She hit the ball and again just showed you how speciato show yof this is, he gets the very first pitch and im playing second base and i cant even hardly move but they put out ther me oe and its a nice gesture. They take them out when the real game starts and low and behold he hits the office that and its right to me and i cant really move more than a foot either way and somehow able to back in and i knew at that point running it on the baseline got to make this play and so somehow to make the throw and i saw everybody come to throw it to me and again if you dont believe in god help uw does a moment like that happen, but i see everybody coming and we just all start tearing up because, you know, i was shocked that theyve everybody was shot at by the shooter and everybody had a differen different emotior us it was such a relief that the game one year after the shooting to say we are not going to let evil triumph over good. We are going to come back and play this game and to be able to have a moment like that and share it with everybody else including growl who came over and shared it i appreciated that because it isnt just about the game but about the come artery and how we can come together. Host i know youve got to leave, but where are you in your recovery . Have you changed any of your policy positions on guns or medical care because of this experience . Guest it hasnt changed things. Its fortified with was important iwhatsimportant in l. Its making sure youre focused on the things that matter in your life, clearly i want to make sure that we have a worldclass Health Care System so everybody has the opportunity that i had and this country is still the shining beacon for healthcare and we want to make sure that it stays that way and so many other things that are important, but in the recovery i still used a crutch to walk them down to one, started off with a scooter because i couldnt even walk on crutches into the night was on two of them and now im down to one and my goal is by the end of this year to be able to walk without crutches. I have permanent damage in my left foot and so that nerve damage hasnt come back and they said it likely wont give you so probably not going to be sitting in settingany worldclass record running but i can go move around a lot better. I can, you know, doing physical therapy a few times a week and that helps a lot in physical therapist at the wonderful occupational therapy. I put them through the wringer because i pushed them like they pushed me to get better and youve got to keep focused on Getting Better every day and i am. Still have a lot of people praying for me and i appreciate those prayers because that does give you the strength to keep Getting Better and like i said when they buy thone day by the r i will be able to walk again. Maybe i can run a five k. Or ten k. Like i used to areas of again im just lucky to be alive. David bailey and crystal. Back on the Capitol Police force. David is back as a team lead again, and a special person both of them, crystal is back with Capitol Police, and shes working at some other capacity that we still stay in touch and we are very close. The bond from that day will never weekend again its about something really positive and something bad that could happen but all the positive that happens all around you, all of us have something that happens every day that we also have good things that have been, too and we need to focus more on the good things and that gives us the strength to keep Getting Better. The author of this book back in the game, thanks for joining us on the tv. Thank you for having me. This holiday week booktv is on cspan2 every day with primetime features each night. Wednesday at 8 p. M. Eastern, emily bernard, carolyn and dani shapiro talk about their respective memoirs. Thursday at 8 30 p. M. Eastern, sarah and her book that cigarette. Friday at 8 p. M. Eastern, donald trump junior and his book triggered this has to come down lower for me. How are all of you tonight . Happy new year. Thank you for being here. [applause] im one of the coowners of politics and prose bookstore. Thank you. [cheering] along with my coowner and husbandho