Gillibrand Heads To Tucson With President

President Obamas Extraordinary Speech at an Extraordinary Time
I think it would be hard to hear the President’s remarks and not be so grateful that such an incredible human being is our leader at a very challenging time in our nation’s history. After um, magically faith healing Rep. Giffords with his presence(?), he then spoke at the memorial service for the Victims of the Tucson tragedy. POTUS urged the nation to speak to each other in ways that heal, rather than wound. The most moving part of his Speech — besides telling us that Giffords...

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz visits friend Ariz. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at Tucson hospital to witness `miracle''
WASHINGTON -- Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Gabrielle Giffords became fast friends when they first met. Both Jewish, both rising Democratic stars under 40 at the time, they gravitated to each other. So it wasn't a surprise that Wasserman Schultz joined President Barack Obama on his visit to the Tucson Hospital where Giffords is recovering. Shortly after the president left the room, with Wasserman Schultz at her side, Giffords opened her eyes for the first time since Saturday's shooting. Then s...

Gillibrand Describes 'Miracle' Moment with Giffords [Video]
A smiling Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was on CNN's American Morning a few hours ago, describing the scene in Gabrielle Giffords' Hospital room last night when the Arizona congresswoman opened her eyes for the first time. "We were crying, we were so excited, we had so much joy," said Gillibrand, who was visiting with Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. "It was just a time that we couldn't believe we were there, to see her just show her strength like tha...

Giffords sitting up in bed, can move all limbs...
TUCSON, Ariz. — U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has passed a "major milestone" on her recovery from a gunshot wound to the head, doctors said Thursday. The Arizona congresswoman has been sitting up, dangling her legs on the edge of the Hospital bed and moving her limbs in response to commands. That's after she spontaneously opened her eyes during visits with her colleagues Wednesday night. She is able to lift both of her legs On Command and is yawning and starting to rub her eyes, docto...

Touching: Gillibrand and Wasserman Schultz Describe Giffords Eye Opening
This is touching. Press Gaggle aboard Air Force One by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz: 12:14 A.M. EST Q So tell us what it was like in there. You were just standing around a friend of yours and -- just put it in your terms. SENATOR GILLIBRAND: Okay, well, I’ll go, and then you’ll go -- okay. Well, we were very excited that we were even going to have the chance of getting to visit her Hospital room. We didn’t know when we first came whether we had...

Girlfriend Power: Transcript of Gillibrand and Wasserman Schultz's Eye-Opening Account
"It felt like a miracle." That's how Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz described the moment wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes for the first time since she was shot in the head Saturday, a testament to medicine and perhaps girlfriend power. Wasserman Schultz and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (a former House member) -- both close pals of Giffords -- were in the wounded congresswoman's Hospital room on Thursday along with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Giffords' husband Mark Kelly when they s...

Gabrielle Giffords Opened Her Eyes
​In a Speech full of heart-wrenching moments last night, President Obama went off script to describe the condition of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head on Saturday in Arizona by Jared Loughner. "Gabby opened her eyes," announced the president. "So I can tell you, she knows we are here, she knows we love her, and she knows that we are rooting for her through what is undoubtedly going to be a difficult journey." The camera showed Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, embracing Mic...

How Boehner spent his evening
HOW BOEHNER SPENT HIS EVENING.... At face blush, the circumstances don't cast House Speaker John Boehner in an especially flattering light. The Ohio Republican chose not to attend the memorial service in Tucson last night, instead attending a cocktail party with members of the Republican National Committee. Also, President Obama offered Boehner a chance to travel to Tucson aboard Air Force One, but the Speaker declined. Taken together, it doesn't look great. But Brian Beutler dug a little deep...

The latest updates on Congresswoman Giffords condition (Video)
There were many tragic Victims from the shootings last Saturday in Tucson, Arizona, but the case which is getting by far the most attention is that of Congresswoman Giffords (D-AZ).  The focus on Giffords is not entirely unjustified.  Subsequent discoveries have revealed that Giffords was the target of the shootings, which occurred at a public event hosted by her at Safeway Grocery Store.  In addition, of the surviving Victims from the shootings Giffords is in the most serious con...

Giffords Eye Opens As Pelosi, Dem Colleagues Look On (VIDEO)
ABOARD Air Force ONE — Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' friends say it's nothing short of a miracle: Days after being shot in the head point-blank, the injured congresswoman opened an eye Wednesday for the first time. Two of her closest friends from Congress, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., were in Giffords' Tucson, Ariz., Hospital room at the time. Both had traveled to Arizona on Air Force One with President Barack Obama to attend a memorial service f...

Giffords' progress described as 'miracle'
WASHINGTON - Wounded U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords astounded her husband, doctor and colleagues Wednesday when she opened her eyes for the first time since being shot in the head, lawmakers told reporters Thursday. “It felt like a miracle. It felt like we were watching a miracle,” Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama on board Air Force One after a memorial service in Arizona Wednesday previous evening. “Other than...

Giffords condition: Inside report from Wasserman Schultz, Gillibrand on "miracle" Transcript
WASHINGTON--Two close friends of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords provided a remarkable condition report following their visit with her at her Tuscon Hospital room. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand offer a detailed account of Giffords first movements--opening an eye and moving limbs--while talking to reporters on Air Force One returning with President Obama following the Tucson memorial service for the Victims of Saturday's massacre. Excerpt, from Gillibrand: Debbie and I start...

She Was Clearly Trying to Hug Him
This needs no commentary, just contemplation. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz telling reporters on Air Force One about their visit to Gabrielle Giffords’s Hospital room, along with Giffords’s husband, Captain Mark Kelly: SENATOR GILLIBRAND: …And then you have to recognize, her eyes hadn’t opened—we didn’t know that—and so she started to struggle. And one of her eyes is covered with a bandage because it was damaged in...

Friends say they saw miracle in Giffords
Published: Jan. 13, 2011 at 12:25 PM U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (pictured) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said they felt awed seeing Rep. Gabrielle Giffords open her eyes in her Tucson Hospital room. UPI/Ron Sachs/Pool TUCSON, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said they felt awed seeing Rep. Gabrielle Giffords open her eyes in her Tucson Hospital room. Amid jokes, comments and laughter about what they'd do once Giffords, D-Ariz., returns to Wa...

Gillibrand and Wasserman-Schultz Describe Giffords Opening Her Eyes
Perhaps the most uplifting moment of Wednesday night’s “Together We Thrive” memorial to the Victims of Saturday’s Mass Shooting was President Obama ’s announcement that, shortly after he left her Hospital room, “Gabby opened her eyes for the first time!” In an off-camera press gaggle on Air Force One last night, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz , who were present when Rep. Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes for the first time, desc

Gillibrand Describes Watching Giffords Open Her Eyes
Last night, President Obama announced that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), who was the apparent target of an Assassination attempt, had opened her eyes for the first time since being shot in the head on Saturday. And it turns out that Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was holding her hand at the time. Gillibrand, who flew to Tucson with Obama and other Congressional members on Air Force, was in Giffords' Hospital room with Giffords' husband and family, as well as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi an...

Gillibrand Recounts Giffords 'Miracle' Awakening (updated)
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand witnessed the "miracle" awakening of bullet-injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords -- and may have helped it happen -- she and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz told reporters returning from President Obama's Speech in Tucson. Both Democratic women became friends with the wounded Arizonan before she was elected to the House, and flew on Air Force 1 to see her in her Hospital room before Obama spoke yesterday. And there the already emotional moment turned to a s...

Rush: Obama Speech Was Pep Rally
Mediaite reports: Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves and wasn’t so eager to echo the overwhelming praise of President Obama’s memorial Speech last night. Not only was he shocked by the “pep rally” tone of the crowd (something that also troubled CBS’ Mark Knoller during today’s Press Conference with Robert Gibbs), but he also had some complaints about what was said, the timing of the ceremony and the media reaction to it. Limbaugh first doubted the wisdom of having Depar

Transcript: Two Lawmakers Describe Moment Gabrielle Giffords Opened Her Eyes
The following is a transcript provided by the White House of New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz described their visit to the Hospital to see Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Wednesday for a tribute to the Victims of Saturday's shootings that was led by President Obama. They are speaking to reporters aboard the presidential jet. Q So tell us what it was like in there. You were just standing around a friend of yours and -- just put it in your terms. SENATOR GILLIB...

9/11 Flag Unfurled, Raised At Funeral Of Christina Taylor Green
TUCSON, Ariz. — As the Funeral for the youngest Victim of the Mass Shooting in Arizona was set to begin Thursday, the largest flag recovered from Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center was raised by two fire trucks with ladders extended, and several hundred people lined a road near the church to show support. Nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green was born on Sept. 11, 2001, and featured in a book called "Faces of Hope" that chronicled one baby from each state born on...

Critics Assail Cheering and T-Shirts at Obama Tucson Speech
T-shirts reading "Together We Thrive: Tucson & America" were handed out to attendees at the event, prompting conservative pundit Michelle Malkin to complain: "Isn't the churning of the instant messaging machine a bit, well, unseemly? Can't the Democrat political stage managers give it a break just once?" Pointing to the fact that the slogan appeared on various items at the event, Malkin wrote, "Yes, the Tucson massacre is being branded." She later wrote that she had been informed that the...

Florida congresswoman on Gabrielle Giffords
For Lesley Clark: Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Gabrielle Giffords: " It felt like we were watching a miracle" That's how the Broward congressman described the moment Wednesday at a Tucson Hospital when Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes for the first time since the shooting on Saturday. Wasserman Schultz and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand briefed reporters late last night on Air Force One as President Obama returned to Washington. "Other than the birth of my kids, this was ...

Gabrielle Giffords continues recovery with support of family, friends and nation
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes yesterday in response to encouragement from her family and friends, shortly after a visit from President Barack Obama.  Surrounded by her husband Astronaut Mark Kelly, parents, Congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), the Arizona Representative opened her eyes for the first time and acknowledged she could see those around her with a wave of her hand. President Obama thrilled a memorial service crowd last ...

No Tears For AZ Shooting Victims From John Boehner--He's Got A Cocktail Party Fundraiser To Host
Priorities, people. President Obama, the First Lady and several members of the House of Representatives boarded Air Force One en route to the memorial service for the Victims of the Tucson shooting tonight. But Speaker of the House John Boehner isn't one of them. He's got a previous engagement: an RNC cocktail party Fundraiser. No, I'm not kidding: Speaker John Boehner will host a cocktail party for the Republican National Committee at the same time that President Barack Obama will be addressin...

Speaker Boehner skips Tucson memorial for RNC cocktail party
Stumble This! The new speaker of the House skipped a nationally televised memorial in Arizona honoring Victims of Saturday's shootings, opting instead to host a cocktail party Wednesday night. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) declined an offer to ride to Tucson on Air Force One with President Barack Obama and other lawmakers, Politico reported. A Democratic leadership aide told the newspaper it was "disrespectful" of the speaker to miss the memorial service in order to attend a partisan political ev...