Former U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk speaks publicly for first time in more than five years
FORT SHERIDAN, Ill. (CBS) -- In a country of red and blue, where Illinois is a big-B blue, Mark Kirk was a political anomaly as a Republican U.S. Senator from Illinois.
After five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the 10th Congressional District – which includes north and some northwest suburbs from Kenilworth up to the Wisconsin state line - Kirk was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010.
Kirk served only one term – he lost a bid for reelection in 2016 to Democrat Tammy Duckworth. And in January 2012 – just over a year into that one term – Kirk suffered a stroke.
We have not seen or heard from Kirk in a while at this point – more than five years. But we're hearing from him now, as he spoke to CBS 2 Streaming Anchor Brad Edwards.
Edwards asked Kirk what he thought of former President Donald Trump.
"I didn't vote for him or support him - and for me, he was too, too racist and too harsh for the Land of Lincoln," Kirk said.
But Kirk added he was "very much" still a Republican.
After disappearing from the scene, Kirk is now stepping out – with every step being one closer to where he wants to be. He needs to use a cane, but his mobility has improved.
A walk near the Fort Sheridan Water Tower now takes nine minutes, while it used to take 20.
Kirk, now 63, was a healthy 52-year-old when he suffered his near-fatal stroke.
On Jan. 21, 2012, he checked himself into Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital after suffering headaches and dizziness. He was later transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital after doctors determined he was suffering an ischemic stroke and needed surgery to relieve swelling on his brain.
"When I asked my doctors, I said, 'What caused my stroke?' they said, 'It was the dissection of your carotid artery,'" Kirk said. I said, 'So what causes dissection of the carotid artery? They said, 'We don't know.'"
Does Kirk think stress was why?
"It could have been," he said. "With stroke comes depression, often, you know. I told the people of the Rehabilitation Institute to 'give me your toughest candidates – the ones who say, 'My life is over,' Kirk said. "I will come in and say it is not over - you're going to bounce back just like me."
A full year after his stroke, Mr. Kirk triumphantly walked up the stairs of the U.S. Capitol himself.
"I used to give out 81 milligrams of aspirin to my colleagues in the Senate, because they're not young guys," Kirk said.
The blood-thinning aspect of that dosage of aspirin helps prevent strokes and heart attacks.
"It had a note that was attached to it that said, 'Please take one of these a day so you don't end up like me,'" Kirk said.
Kirk struggled in some ways after his return.
"I had somewhat of a speech impediment after the stroke. The toughest thing to do is to keep the attention of a senator - they have strong ADD," Kirk said. "The thing I most insisted on, that I could speak fast enough to keep their attention."
Kirk had many missions. Right now, all the talk is about AI – artificial intelligence – which is something Kirk would like to be involved with right now.
"The thing that I most regret that I'm not working on," he said. "I wanted to make sure that the United States remains ahead of China intellectually."
Kirk was on that mission a decade ago.
"I wanted the fastest computer in the world to come to Illinois, so we could be even faster than the Chinese," he said.
He lost that fight, but won another.
"One of the big issues that I always was to protect Lake Michigan. I was really trying to ban all of sewage dumping in Lake Michigan. The whole ethos behind Chicago is reversing the flow of the Chicago River so the sewage didn't go into the lake. The whole zeitgeist behind our city is based on good environmental stewardship of the lake," Kirk said. "I passed the Kirk amendment. The Kirk Amendment prohibited sewage dumping in the lakes - in the Great Lakes."
That set up a structure to penalize abusers of the lake.
A respect for water - the Big Lake - was cemented as a child for Kirk.
"I had a special relationship because I nearly drowned there when I was 16 - So I always had a spiritual connection to the lake," Kirk said.
It was 1976, on Lake Michigan along the North Shore. The water was 42 degrees. Young Kirk slipped off a dinghy.
"They said, 'Your temperature was down to 82 to,' you know, they said, 'Much lower and your heart stops,'" Kirk said. "So the headline on the newspaper article was 'Just in time!' which is true."
It is also true that Kirk was a bit of an unexpected Senator, by his own admission. From being the subject of a Coast Guard rescue, Kirk became a U.S. Naval Intelligence officer with callsign "Rooster." Then he was elected to U.S. Congress, and finally U.S. Senate.
"I was certain that I was going to not prevail," Kirk said. "This is a Democratic state. I am not going to prevail. I was contacting my friends in Afghanistan, because my plan was to go back on active duty when I lost the race - to just go back into the Navy and do everything I could for the military. I even reached out to one of my friends in Afghanistan and said, 'Hey, if you need any help out there, I might be kind of free right now."
Mr. Kirk wound up not in Afghanistan, but Washington.
The saga involving that particular Senate was the subject of its own drama before Kirk ran. U.S. Sen Barack Obama had vacated the seat upon taking office upon being elected president, and then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich was charged with – and later convicted of – trying to sell the open seat.
Before being impeached and removed from office, Blagojevich appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to finish Obama's term. Burris did not run for a full term.
Kirk handily won the Republican primary for the seat and faced off against Alexi Giannoulias – who was backed by President Obama. Giannoulias was elected Illinois Secretary of State last year.
Kirk and Giannoulias got together for a summit over suds at the Billy Goat Tavern when it was over.
"I will tell you that he did the beer summit with me - and during the campaign, I grew to like him more and more," Kirk said, "Now, I'm very proud that he's going to be the guy that's signing my driver's license."
Giannoulias issued this statement:
"The day after the 2010 election, I bought Mark a beer because I wanted everyone to know that I believed in and respected the democratic process and the future of our country. It's a moment that still resonates with me today, especially amidst the hate-filled rhetoric, the polarization within our communities and even acts of violence that now define our politics and threaten our democracy. More than anything, that moment demonstrated that we were both strong believers in the importance of bipartisanship and working together for ALL Illinoisans, regardless of political affiliation or where they live. I consider Mark a good friend and I have the upmost respect for him as a person and for his commitment to public service. We will be friends for many years to come and I wish more people could establish and maintain friendships, in spite of disagreements they may have on certain policy positions."
Kirk continues to put partisanship aside as he speaks about his one-time Senate race opponent today.
"And in the latest race, I was thinking about voting in the Democratic primary so I could vote for him," Kirk said. "I almost wish he would have called me and said, 'Hey man, I need some Republican backing.' I would have given it to him."
Edwards noted that such things do not really happen anymore.
"People are too divided," Kirk said.
Kirk noted that while serving in the military in Kosovo, the enemy was not shooting at Democrats or Republicans – they were shooting at Americans. He also noted that members of Congress are supporting people in the Army, Navy, and Air Force as they are in harm's way.
"There's no Democrat or Republican difference between them," he said. "You just got to make sure that that people are sure that you're working for all of them."
Today, Kirk said, people "play too much to the base."
"The important thing is to remember when you're in the Congress, people have to understand that you've got to put patriotism before party," Kirk said. "Right now, if you're only playing to the base, you have to be this partisan warrior."
Edwards asked Kirk if he thought the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, was an insurrection.
"To attack the Temple of Freedom - you know, had I had I been in the chamber, I would have certainly done everything possible to prevent the physical violation of the Capitol," Kirk said.
And Edwards asked Kirk if he is happy now. Kirk said he is.
he has a pension, he consults, and he lives modestly in a townhouse.
"Had I known my life would be this good. I would have endorsed Duckworth, to move on to be a full time grandparent," Kirk said.
But Kirk is not completely removed from politics these days.
"A United States Senator using his old senatorial magic to help the homeowners' association of Fort Sheridan, Illinois to make sure that's good," Kirk said.
What's harder – whipping votes in the U.S. Senate, or passing an assessment to get a new roof through the homeowners' association?
"Probably the assessment is going to be harder," Kirk said.
Kirk is still close to the moderates of his class. He stumped for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) a few years ago.
Of all his service entailed, Kirk said: "My best moment as the United States Senator, is when the Cubs won it all. Rahm (Emanuel) invited us all on the bus to see the, I guess, 5 million people turned out for that."
And his goal now?
"My highest and best goal is to defeat the Packers; to make sure that we crush the Packers at any opportunity that we have," Kirk said.
It's one step at a time. His left leg and arm do not work – but he has not given up hope that they will at the future.
"Eventually, some will come back," Kirk said.
And Mark Kirk knows a bit about comebacks.