Preview: Gabby Giffords on Before & After with Lester Holt

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Lester Holt (1:08)

Hi, I'm Lester Holt with a special preview of my new podcast, Before & After. In this week's episode, I sit down with Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona Congresswoman, married to Senator Mark Kelly. Back in 2011, Gabby was shot in the head while meeting with constituents outside a Tucson grocery store. She suffered a devastating brain injury that left her with partial paralysis and aphasia, a condition that sometimes makes it difficult to speak. But as I learn, Gabby still has a lot to say about her recovery, her gun safety organization Giffords, and her hope for the future.

I can't believe we've never met.

SPEAKER_2 (1:51)

No.

Lester Holt (1:51)

How is that?

SPEAKER_2 (1:52)

Yeah, I don't know.

Lester Holt (1:54)

I wanted to meet you because I wanted to know what it's like being Gabby Giffords.

Gabby Giffords (1:59)

Funny, funny, funny. I'm Gabby Giffords, yoga twice a week, French horns, band listens, biking, 240 for the gym, pool therapy, and I'm traveling 60% of the road.

Lester Holt (2:13)

Are we talking about an average day you do all that?

Gabby Giffords (2:15)

Yes.

Lester Holt (2:16)

And how does it make you feel?

Gabby Giffords (2:18)

Love it. Love it. Love it.

Yeah.

Lester Holt (2:20)

This is a point I think I want to bring in. Emma Brown. Hi, Emma.

Emma Brown (2:23)

Hi.

Lester Holt (2:24)

You work with Gabby.

Emma Brown (2:26)

Yeah, the executive director of Giffords. Yeah.

Lester Holt (2:29)

Gabby has a condition called aphasia. Gabby, I'll turn it to you on that.

What does aphasia mean for your life? How does it affect you?

Gabby Giffords (2:37)

Aphasia really sucks. The words are there in my brain.

I just can't get them out. I love to talk. I'm Gabby and I'm so quiet now.

Emma Brown (2:47)

I don't experience you as all that quiet in real life.

Gabby Giffords (2:52)

What, what, what, and chicken, chicken, chicken.

Emma Brown (2:55)

When Gabby was shot, she was in a coma for a few weeks. And when she woke up, those were the only two words that she could say. The word-

Lester Holt (3:04)

Chicken, chicken.

Emma Brown (3:05)

And what, yeah, the word what. No one knows why, no one knows why, but those were the only words that she could say. And she rebuilt her vocabulary from there.

Lester Holt (3:13)

Right after you were shot, I flew out to Arizona, and I was anchoring the news from there. Tonight from Tucson, the massacre that's left a nation stunned. Six people are dead and a congresswoman fights for her life. I'm sure you've been told this, that there was some erroneous reporting that you had died.

Gabby Giffords (3:32)

Oh, no way, Jose.

Lester Holt (3:34)

Yeah. How long before you realize what had happened and the extent of your injuries?

Gabby Giffords (3:42)

What is happening to me?

Emma Brown (3:47)

Gabby and Senator Kelly will tell a story of after she had woken up, they hid the newspapers from her because it was too much to take in.

I think you walked into the bathroom in the hospital and cried and said to Mark, what is happening to me? Realizing what had happened and the extent of her injuries.

Lester Holt (4:12)

Did you understand how badly you were hurt?

Emma Brown (4:14)

Yes, yes.

Lester Holt (4:15)

You have tracheotomy scar?

Gabby Giffords (4:17)

Yes, the bullet.

Lester Holt (4:20)

Went through your head?

Gabby Giffords (4:20)

Yes.

Lester Holt (4:21)

I was thinking as I came here, all the shootings that happened after yours, there was Las Vegas, there was El Paso, and I think about the survivors, people like yourself, and how you managed to figure it out, and you put one foot in front of the other, and you take back what's yours.

Gabby Giffords (4:43)

Yes.