Giffords speaks clearly, deliberately in TV interview

Posted Nov 10, 2011

Dylan Smith
TucsonSentinel.com

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords speaks clearly, if deliberately, in her first recorded TV interview since Jan. 8.

Thursday night, ABC News released a short clip of the congresswoman speaking with interviewer Diane Sawyer.

"Pretty good," she responded when asked how she feels.

When asked "is it painful," Giffords responded "Difficult."

Video clips in the ABC promo show Giffords lying in a hospital bed with her head shaved, with stitches running across her forehead and scalp.

Other clips show Giffords undergoing speech and physical therapy, walking with the aid of a shopping cart and listening to music.

The complete ABC report, including an interview with Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, is scheduled to be broadcast on Monday night. The couple's joint memoir, "Gabby, A Story Of Courage and Hope," is scheduled to be released on Tuesday.

The Associated Press reported last week that Giffords vowed to return to Congress in the book.

"I will get stronger. I will return," she wrote.

But a source close to Giffords disputed the AP's interpretation, the Arizona Republic reported.

Giffords has lost 50 percent of her vision in both eyes, AP says the book relates.

Giffords, yet to speak in public since the shooting, reads the one-page last chapter of the audiobook of her joint memoir with her husband, the AP said.

Giffords has not given an interview since being shot in the head in what authorities charge was an assassination attempt at a "Congress On Your Corner" constituent meet-and-greet.

While undergoing rehabilitation in Houston after being shot through the brain, Giffords has made only a few public appearances, and traveled little.

While Giffords has not formally announced she is running for reelection, her campaign has continued to raise and spend significant amounts of money.