Mark Knoller · @markknoller
13th Jan 2011 from Twitlonger
On the flight back from Tucson last night on Air Force One, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-FL, told reporters about what they said to their friend and colleague Rep. Gabby Giffords yesterday during their hospital visit with the Obamas and how they think it got Giffords to open her eye (the other eye is bandaged.)
REPRESENTATIVE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: We told her -- when Kirsten was talking to her, she said -- because she and her husband had just gone and had pizza with Gabby and Mark, so she said, you know, come on -- come on, Gabby, you got to get going here, we’re going to go out for pizza. The last couple of summers, Gabby and Mark and Mark’s kids have vacationed with my family and I in New Hampshire. And I said, Gabby, we fully expect you to be up and ready to go to come back up to New Hampshire this summer, and that’s when she started to open her eye. And the Speaker was talking to her this whole time. We just kept alternately talking to her.
And literally the doctor said, no, you don’t understand, this is really, really significant progress. He starts pounding out a message on his BlackBerry. Her mother and father are just crying. When we -- when they finally pretty much kicked us out because, you know, obviously --
SENATOR GILLIBRAND: It was a lot of excitement.