Subcommittee Chairman U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) speaks during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on Capitol Hill on January 11, 2024 in Washington, DC. (File/Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson was discharged from the hospital over the weekend with a pacemaker after collapsing Sept. 10.
In a one-minute video recorded in the U.S. Capitol on Monday, Wilson said he fainted after a significant drop in blood pressure. He received medical attention on the scene and was taken to George Washington University Hospital, where he said he received excellent care.
Wilson was at an event at Ukraine House in Washington celebrating Ukraine’s Independence Day when he fell ill, according to a report from Reuters.
In the video, he said he was attended by two heart surgeons and the House chaplain.
“Roxanne (his wife) and I are so grateful for the hundreds of messages of prayers by constituents,” Wilson said in the video. “Dozens of congressional colleagues, House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats have been so thoughtful.”
Wilson expressed his appreciation for the work of his staff during his stay in the hospital.
He also said he was grateful that former President Donald Trump had survived what appears to have been an assassination attempt on Sunday.
The 77-year-old Republican congressman from Lexington County has represented the 2nd District since winning a special election in 2001. He was previously a state senator for 17 years. In 2003, he retired from the South Carolina Army National Guard as a colonel.
Wilson is the senior member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of its Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia subcommittee.
He is running for re-election in November against Democratic challenger David Robinson II. The district stretches from Aiken and Barnwell counties at the Georgia border to northern Richland County.