Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), Congressman Tony Wied (R-Wis.), and fifth-generation rancher Kevin Kester to discuss Charlie Kirk's life and legacy, the media's role in promoting inciting rhetoric, and how Republicans are taking action this week to build on the success of President Trump's efforts to make DC safer and strengthen America's energy dominance.
 
On the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk:

“We still mourn the loss of Charlie Kirk. For anybody that watched Friday night when his widow, Erika, spoke so powerfully about Charlie's impact, of course, on her and her family first, but on the country, and now, as we've seen on the world. It just reminds us how powerful the idea of one person's idea can be, because that's what Charlie represented when he started Turning Point at 18 years old. It was an idea, and that idea became a movement. And anybody who thought they were going to snuff out that movement with an assassin's bullet they were clearly, clearly underestimating the power of Charlie's idea and the inspiration that he has now given to millions and millions of people all across this country. And in that momentum, that inspiration is only going to grow.”

On the legacy media’s role in promoting incendiary rhetoric: 

“His assassination also gives us a moment to reflect about how we can all do better, how we can try to stop this, unfortunately, too common cycle that we're seeing. And as we reflect, we all need to look at ourselves. Are the things we're saying – can we do better there? But I do think it's an important moment for the media as well, because when you look at just this example with Charlie, and there have been some studies that have been done that have taken, just for example, President Trump and the word ‘fascism.’ One network alone used that combination of words over 3,000 times. 3,000 times mainstreaming that combination of words in just the last three years. And whether some realize it or not, that magnification is heard by the wrong person. And we've seen people, deranged people, take action, think that that's a call to take action. 

“In the case of Charlie, he was called those things, too. And there are leaders up here that throw that word around about anybody that they disagree with. And if it's amplified in the media, and the wrong deranged person hears it and decides to take action. In the case of Charlie's assassin, he wrote the word ‘fascist’ on the bullet. And it's just an example that we can all do better. And we can all do our part to not allow that kind of hateful speech to become mainstream and stand up against it so that we don't see this become the norm in America. It's not who America is. We are not a nation that settles our differences with violence. We settle our political differences at the ballot box, and that's the way it always has to be for a free and fair democratic society to endure. We will endure, and Charlie's legacy will endure, but it's only going to endure when we all resolve to do better.”

On keeping DC safe:

“I want to talk about this week. Obviously, we have a very busy week. We are dealing more with DC crime. The Oversight Committee has passed out a number of bills. We're taking some of those bills this week and moving them on the House floor. These are bills we worked very closely with President Trump to bring. He's done a lot on his own to make DC safer. You could see the numbers: Thousands of criminals arrested, seven young people that were lost that are now found. So many people around here that feel safer because of the actions that were taken. But there's still ordinances on the books that make it hard for the hardened criminals to get arrested, and even if they're arrested, to get put in jail and be held accountable for their crimes. And we're bringing bills to address that this week.”

On House Republicans unleashing American energy:

“We're also bringing some more good energy security bills to the floor so that America can continue to be the dominant energy nation in the world. It's great for families when they pay lower gas prices. It creates jobs. It helps all of our friends around the world. It takes away the leverage from countries like Russia who make billions of dollars a month selling their energy on world markets. If we can produce more here, we're going to continue advancing that here on the House floor this week.”

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