Marsha Blackburn Rails Against Democrats' 'Reckless Rhetoric' About Trump In Wake Of WHCD Shooting

Added: 2026-04-30

[00:00:00]Are we in a quorum call?

[00:00:01]>> We are.

[00:00:02]>> I ask that we dispense with the quarum call.

[00:00:05]>> Without objection.

[00:00:06]>> Thank you, Mr. President. Every American should be grateful that President Trump, Vice President Vance, the cabinet, and thousands of other attendees were not harmed during Saturday's disturbing shooting that took place at the White House Correspondents Association dinner.

[00:00:29]We now know that the shooter was attempting to kill the president and this was the third assassination attempt we have seen on his life in the past couple of years. Now some Democrats and I would include former President Obama in this. Some have claimed that we don't have details about the suspect's motives, but we do have plenty of details. And we know that the shooter actually laid a good bit of this out. He did a manifesto and he sent that manifesto to his family shortly before the attack and the shooter said he was going to target administration officials. And quoting from that manifesto, prioritize from highest ranking to lowest.

[00:01:23]It shows you he thought this through.

[00:01:28]Now his reason for this.

[00:01:32]He said President Trump is and I quote his wording here again pedophile rapist traitor. Now this is unhinged rhetoric.

[00:01:44]It is completely in line with the lies that the Democrats have repeated on just about a daily basis every day regarding President Trump.

[00:02:02]We've heard it on TV, on podcast, on social media, in their speeches.

[00:02:09]And it is something else that they continue with this rhetoric.

[00:02:17]And Governor Tim Walls, who of course was the VP nominee in the last election, once said, and I will quote his statement, "No one has ever been more dangerous to this country than Donald Trump, and he is a fascist to his c core." End quote.

[00:02:37]Again, that was Governor Tim Walls.

[00:02:42]Now, some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have called the president an existential threat to democracy, the most significant threat to American democracy since the Civil War, and an authoritarian.

[00:02:59]And some of them have chosen to compare him to historical figures. And that historical figure they usually use is Hitler.

[00:03:12]And of course, Kamala Harris once compared him to a communist dictator.

[00:03:19]Mr. President, this is reckless rhetoric.

[00:03:25]This is the kind of rhetoric that needs to stop because this places a target on our president. And this is the type rhetoric that has no place in civil public life. Now we are celebrating America 250 and we are looking at how this nation has remained strong and free. Indeed, I think that as you look at our history, those tenants of faith, family, freedom, hope, and opportunity have served us well. And how do we achieve that American dream? Well, we have kept ourselves free and focused on achieving that dream for each and every person.

[00:04:18]They all look different.

[00:04:21]Everybody's dream is different of what they want, what their goals are, the type community they want to live in.

[00:04:32]They're all different.

[00:04:36]But we arrive at decisions of what kind of communities we will have, what kind of country we will have, those issues of importance. We arrive there through robust, respectful bipartisan debate.

[00:04:56]We don't get there by exercising reckless rhetoric, some of which I have quoted.

[00:05:07]And it is so disappointing to hear this from some of our colleagues and then to see the type of vitriol that this spurs.

[00:05:22]Now when we have robust, respectful bipartisan debate, I share my opinion, someone else shares their opinion.

[00:05:35]What this does is to empower not only us but the people that we represent to enter in to that debate to be a part of the public square to defend our freedoms to build consensus and to serve the American people and to preserve the freedoms that we enjoy. Now without it, without having that marketplace of ideas, without that robust respectful debate that leads to exchange and asking what if we did this, what if we did that? If we did not have that, then this nation would head to a very dark place. And this latest assassination attempt on President Trump is another reminder of what can happen when Americans abandon the possibility of working together.

[00:06:41]And instead of settling their differences by debate in the public square, they choose to settle these differences by violence.

[00:06:57]by reckless rhetoric.

[00:07:00]So, as we approach our nation's 250th anniversary, we need to remember that it is this exchange of ideas and this robust, respectful debate that has helped to sustain the freedoms that we enjoy in this country.