For Immediate Release
July 14, 2024
Contact: Taylor Haulsee
Benton, LA — This morning, Speaker Johnson joined NBC’s Today Show to discuss the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Click here to watch Speaker Johnson’s full interview
Below are excerpts from the interview:
On the aftermath of the assassination attempt
“America awakens to a rather surreal morning. This is a horrific act of political violence. It ought to be roundly condemned. Obviously, we can’t go on like this as a society. You know, our prayers are with President Trump. All the rally attendees, certainly the family of the individual that lost their life and those who are injured.
“We have gotten briefings from law enforcement. I spoke to Secretary Mayorkas last night and asked him some pointed questions regarding Homeland Security and what happened there. I’ve already announced that Congress will do a full investigation of the tragedy yesterday to determine where there were lapses in security and anything else that the American people need to know and deserve to know. But in the meantime, we’ve got to turn the rhetoric down. We’ve got to turn the temperature down in this country. We need leaders of all parties on both sides to call that out and make sure that happens so that we can go forward and maintain our free society that we all are blessed to have.”
On rhetoric surrounding President Trump’s candidacy
“I’ve spent a lot of time with President Trump. I sent him a text immediately. I knew that he wouldn’t see it for some time, but to just tell him that what we all saw what seems to be a miracle. I believe that God spared him, and that bullet went just apparently a millimeter from doing real and permanent damage to him or perhaps taking his life. And it’s just kind of a surreal thing. I know him well. He has an inexhaustible reservoir of energy and strength that’s almost inexplicable to us sometimes. But he’ll keep fighting and he should.
“Look, Willie, this, this is an important point to make, you were showing some of the text messages of my colleagues in the Senate and the House. They pointed out that the rhetoric has just been over the top. It really has. There’s no figure in American history, at least in the modern era, maybe since Lincoln, that has been so vilified and really persecuted by media and Hollywood elites, political figures, even the legal system. And when the message goes out constantly, that the election of Donald Trump would be a threat to democracy, and that the Republic would end, it heats up the environment. We cannot do that. It’s simply not true. Everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down.”
On the political environment in America
“When I came to Congress in January 2017 — I came to Washington the same time President Trump did — my colleagues and I, a handful of us started a group we called the Honor and Civility Caucus. The idea being that, look, we can disagree, but we have to do it in an agreeable manner. You know, we don’t hate people inside the building. You have political opposition and political opponents, but we’re all Americans and we have to treat one another with dignity and respect. We can have heated political discourse and debates, but it shouldn’t be personal, and we shouldn’t be targeting people. President Biden himself said in recent days, it’s time to put a bullseye on President Trump. I know that he didn’t mean what is being implied there, but that kind of language on either side should be called out. And, and we must make clear that, that this is part of our system. We can have vigorous debate, but it needs to end there.”
On questions arising from the assassination attempt
“I asked Secretary Mayorkas last night, my first question is, were drones being used in the vicinity? I mean, that would be an obvious thing. You would be able to spot someone on a roof. He didn’t know when I asked him that question last night. And that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, but he didn’t know last night. We need to know how an individual could be at that elevation that was seen by apparently bystanders on the ground. How could not that not be noticed by Secret Service? Lots more questions than answers this morning.”###