North Shore Louisiana News

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) appeared on Fox News to discuss the recent shooting at President Trump's rally.

On the incident, Scalise remarked, "It was difficult to watch, you know, it brings back a lot of emotions. You know, my first thoughts were to pray for President Trump. Early reports, you really weren’t sure what happened. You saw blood coming from his ear. But, you know, as we see now, I mean, it was a clear assassination attempt. I think there was maybe some divine intervention in preventing that from being much worse than it could have been."

Scalise also expressed his condolences for others affected by the event: "There were other deaths. We pray for all of those that were injured or killed, innocently. You know, the shooter was down and you saw law enforcement take swift action. And we saw that, too, on the ball field. Law enforcement is the first to go run towards the danger. They did it today. They did it on the ball field. And that's one of the things that keeps more people safe when evil people show up to do things like this, and there's no place for it. There's just no place for violence in our politics in America and we can never accept it. We all need to forcefully denounce it.”

Reflecting on his own experience with political violence during a congressional baseball practice shooting in 2017, Scalise said: “[Congressman] Brad Wenstrup absolutely did [save my life]. Brad is a hero of mine... Otherwise, I might not be here right now." He continued by praising David Bailey and Crystal Griner: “The heroism of David Bailey and Crystal Griner... risked their lives... Both were hit during the shootout and kept going at it... There would have been over a dozen members of Congress killed that day.”

Scalise also mentioned President Trump's support during his recovery: “And I know there are prayers going out right now to [President] Donald Trump... That night Donald Trump came to the hospital to check on me and just to console my family... He left a birthday party to come and check on me... He's a special man."

Regarding dangerous rhetoric surrounding political figures, Scalise emphasized caution: “When you hear all these calls... it's going to be a threat to America... That incendiary rhetoric needs to stop because all it takes is one person who's just unhinged... We don't need to jump to conclusions but I think we can all say it would be good if the rhetoric just gets dialed down.”

Scalise concluded with a call for unity and focus on national issues: “Let's focus on the issues that people care about... This is a great country... But we have problems and let's talk about those problems... Let's have a next few months focus on how we get this country back on track."