Scalise Discusses Trump Shooting
Washington,
July 14, 2024
Last night, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined CBS and Fox News to discuss the shooting at President Trump’s rally in Butler, PA.
Excerpts from Leader Scalise’s interviews: Leader Scalise on CBS: “In the greatest country in the history of the world, we have big political differences. You know, we did 240 years ago when our country started but you know, the way we settle our differences is at the ballot box. That's what makes America unique. We cannot tolerate political violence.” … “And as you mentioned, you know, when I was shot, President Trump came to the hospital that night and, you know, consoled my family. I was in a coma for three days but you know, he and I still talk about that a lot and he was there for me. I reached out to him because I want to be there for him like so many other people want to be there for him – just praying that he's okay.” … “Back then I almost didn't make it through – there were a lot of miracles. But like today, I mean, law enforcement were there for me. I'll never forget David Bailey and Crystal Griner were Capitol Police who both confronted the shooter and were both hit during the shoot-out to secure all of us on that ball field alive. And today you saw, you know, the Secret Service agents immediately rushing to Donald Trump to keep him safe.” … “We've been in constant communication with colleagues, with staff on the Oversight Committee, on some of the other committees, of course. We're checking into some of the reports, you know, was Trump’s Secret Service asking for more secret service for weeks and being denied that? We're looking at that as well.” … “I'm going to be in Milwaukee for the entire convention. I just got word from the RNC that it appears that President Trump is going to be going forward with the schedule as laid out. He’ll I’m sure talk more about what that is. I mean, we were expecting to hear the VP pick rolled out early next week. You know, that's still going to be up to President Trump how that's done, but I haven't heard of any changes in plans.” ... “Let's let the next four months be about how to fix and solve those problems in America and not have the incendiary language that unfortunately we're seeing right now.” … “We also need to see a more aggressive attitude when somebody does commit political violence. Today, the shooter was killed. But there's other examples of violence where the people were let go, and that's not a good sign. You shouldn't be letting people go that commit political violence because then they're going to just send a message that it's okay to do it and it's not okay.” Click here or the image above to view Leader Scalise's full interview on Fox News.
Leader Scalise on Fox News: “In the case of President Trump, you can tell when he was hit, he went down to kind of avoid what was coming, and fortunately, as you pointed out, just that one difference, maybe the turn of the head, made all the difference in the world. And thank God that he's still alive and okay, but it easily could have gone the other way. “So, you know, this is one of those days where, you know, when God was on the ball field with me, I think God was there with President Trump. Sadly, there were other injuries, a casualty of civilians that were watching the rally. “I mean, we're going to have hearings on this, you know, how could you have somebody on the rooftop? There are reports that people watched him climb up the roof and even alerted authorities, and we're going to be looking into that. How could that happen with all the authorities around that they miss something so clear that the shooter was able to get that kind of line of sight just 150 yards away from the stage?” … “Well, I want to hear how seriously they're taking this threat. You know, in the case of the shooting on the baseball field, they initially called it suicide by cop. The FBI categorized it that way and the shooter's intent was to kill every one of us on that ball field. And yet they called it suicide by cop, which offended all of us who were there. I mean, they weren't just trying to kill me. The shooter was trying to kill every Republican on that ball field. And we felt it wasn't taken seriously the way it should have been. “In this case, you know, I want to see a very stern and serious focus on finding out were there other people involved in the planning of this? Are there other people still out there that are planning future attacks? Was it a lone gunman? What were his motivations? You know, how was he obviously able to get access to that rooftop? But I want to see a very serious focus on recognizing that this was an assassination attempt on a leading candidate for President of the United States and it should be taken that seriously and beefed up security needs to follow from this point forward.” … “President Trump, I thought the way that he left you know, showing strength, raising his hand and clenching his fist and letting the crowd know he was okay, but also letting everybody else know ‘I'm okay’ to calm things because, you know, gee, the last thing we need is that kind of chaos where potentially the leading candidate for president is not able to follow through. He made it clear, he's going to be fine. "It just reminds us all, this is such a volatile democracy that we live in. And our founding fathers 240 years ago knew that it's always going to be up to us to preserve that for future generations. And there's a lot on the ballot this November 5th. “I think President Trump showed that strength today that people want but it's alarming to think we came this close to not having him with us. Thank God, that he's okay.” … “[Donald Trump] was president for four years and we had a great economy. We had a secure border. We had peace in the world. So all of that stuff is not true, but that hyper-rhetoric has been thrown out there for months. And all it takes is one person who's unstable to act on it.” |