Phillip Todd views the random act of violence that left him bleeding with multiple stab wounds as a chance to speak about his faith, not use it as a political tool. (Phillip Todd )
"The first thing that I had thought of was, ‘Well, I need to pray. Maybe I can't pray myself, but someone needs to pray for this,’" Todd told Fox News Digital. "So, I asked the paramedic to pray for me. And he said, ‘Are you Christian? Like, what are you?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I'm a Christian.’"
"He goes, ‘Well, I'm an atheist,’" Todd continued. "And I said, ‘That's fine. You can pray for me.’ He was kind and obliged."
The incident on H Street in Washington, D.C., could have been the perfect flashpoint for a political operative looking for an anecdote about crime in the district — to use as a cudgel against Democratic policies in the nation's capital city.
Todd was working for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and was attacked in broad daylight in the midst of one of the worst crime years Washington had experienced in the last three decades.
After all, he was millimeters away from becoming a statistic. He was stabbed at least four times, with the knife piercing his skull, nearly severing his ear, plunging through his diaphragm and coming dangerously close to his heart.
Even now, in the midst of a hyper-politicized push by the Trump administration to crack down on crime in D.C. that has spurred accusations of authoritarianism from Democrats and accolades from Republicans, Todd, who still works on the Hill, has kept politics and what happened to him separate.
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President Donald Trump speaks with members of law enforcement and National Guard soldiers on Aug. 21, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)
One of the most striking things about Todd is his ability to crack jokes about a knife plunging through his skull and piercing the membrane that surrounds his brain.
Now, he has a titanium plate that has further affirmed his friends’ belief that he is hard-headed — it also doesn’t set off metal detectors at the airport, he noted.
However, the fact that he underwent a traumatic situation at the hands of Neal, who had been released from prison just days before the attack after serving over a decade behind bars and was found to be mentally incompetent to stand trial in June, was not lost on him either.
But it was his decision to forgive Neal early on while still recovering in his hospital bed, a choice he wondered if he would have made had his entire faculties been there. Nonetheless, it’s one that he stood by and credited for his ability to look at the situation in a light-hearted manner.
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"I think the opportunity for redemption in this particular story, it seems to me, and maybe this changes over time, doesn't lie necessarily with the political but lies more on the fact that this was a very egregious crime," he said. "This is a very big wrong that was done to me."
"It would be totally understandable to have a lot of desire to see retribution," Todd continued. "And yet instill in those moments — because God had gifted me with the ability to forgive, and God had saved me from death — showing how obedience to God can also lead others to a life full of meaning and satisfaction and redemption and tough trials and situations."
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-aide-who-survived-brutal-dc-stabbing-says-crime-fight-worthwhile