Giffords: I'll Go Back to Congress When I Get 'Better'

Gabrielle Giffords worked hard to walk and talk in last night’s 20/20 interview, but even as she gave brief answers to Diane Sawyer’s questions, it was clear the congresswoman could still understand and had retained her memory. Will she return to Congress? Only when she gets “better,” Giffords said, according to Roll Call. (Watch that clip at the Huffington Post.) If she does decide to return, husband Mark Kelly said, “I’ll do my best to protect her in whatever she chooses to do."

Giffords recalled feeling like “a zombie” after the shooting, and grieving after learning that others were killed: “I cried. Died. Sad,” she said. “A lot of people died.” At one point during her recovery, the Washington Post reports, Giffords told Kelly, “I’ve been beaten.” Kelly told Sawyer, “I would say, ‘Gabby, you have not been beaten. You’ve just been beat up. And you’re going to get through this, and you’re going to recover and you’re going to come back stronger than ever.’” (More Gabrielle Giffords stories.)