Steve Scalise shuts down Obama aide's comment about Republican obituaries

It didn't take many words for Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) to shut down President Barack Obama's former aide, Ben Rhodes, on Thursday after the foreign policy adviser made a comment about Republican obituaries:

Scalise very nearly lost his life when a gunman opened fire on a practice session for the Republican congressional baseball team in Virginia this spring. "That night, it could have gone the other way a few times," Scalise recalled. "When I got to the hospital, they said I was within a minute of death if they didn't get some blood back into my system."

Scalise's reprimand of Rhodes' comment, then, carried an extra weight:

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

With many contentious issues on the table this year, tensions have been high between Republicans and Democrats — as well as between members of a divided GOP. A member of the Republican National Committee in Nevada apologized in July for sharing a Medium post directed at Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who'd just undergone surgery for a blood clot, titled "Please Just F‑‑‑ing Die Already."