~snip~
This morning, showing his steadfast commitment to smearing the president based on flimsy or manufactured "evidence," Hoft
announced that it "Looks Like Obama Fibbed About Giffords 'Opening Her Eyes for the First Time" in his speech last night. Hoft wrote that it was a "very emotional moment" but "unfortunately it was not true." His evidence?
A blog post by a website called The Sonoron Chronicle -- which even Hoft acknowledged had since been taken down (he's
linking to the Google cache) -- that reported that at a press conference on Sunday, Giffords' doctor Peter Rhee said that she can open her eyes. Unfortunately for Hoft, this is a complete misquote of what Rhee actually said in his
press conference (emphasis added):
QUESTION: Has she -- you said it has been simple commands. Has she verbalized at all? And we were also told that there was a reviewing of sorts with her husband last night? And she did recognize him. Can you talk about that?
RHEE: No, we can't get into too much more detail than what we already have. But I can tell you right now with the type of surgery, her eyes, she can't open her eyes at this point, mechanical standpoints, and she's also on the ventilator, so she can't speak at this time.
~snip~
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201101130004Here, Gillibrand and Wasserman-Schultz are describing Giffords Opening her Eyes for the First time:
~snip~
This is touching. Press Gaggle aboard Air Force One by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz:
~snip~
And we just were so excited, so we were telling her how proud we were of her and how she was inspiring the whole nation with her courage and with her strength. And then Debbie and I started joking about all the things we were going to do after she got better. And we were holding her hand and she was responding to our hand-holding. She was rubbing our hands and gripping our hands so we could -- she could really -- we knew she could hear and understand what we were saying and she moved her leg, and so we knew she was responding. And the more we joked about what we were going to do, she started to open her eyes literally.
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 the gunfire. So her eye is flickering. And Mark sees this and gets extremely excited. And we didn’t -- I didn’t know what that meant. And so he said, Gabby, open your eyes, open your eyes. And he’s really urging her forward. And the doctor is like perking up and everyone is coming around the bed. And she’s struggling and she’s struggling and it’s a good -- we couldn’t figure it out, maybe 30 seconds, where she’s really trying to get her eyes open, like doing this, this, this.
And then she finally opens her eyes and you could she was like desperately trying to focus and it took enormous strength from her. And Mark could just -- can’t believe it. I mean, he’s so happy. And we’re crying because we’re witnessing something that we never imagined would happen in front of us.
And so Mark says, he says -- he said, Gabby, if you can see me, give us the thumbs up, give us the thumbs up. And so we’re waiting and we’re waiting and --
~snip~
More:
http://openleft.com/diary/21395/touching-gillibrand-and-wasserman-schultz-describe-giffords-eye-opening