Im asking and saying to every american who happens to be listening to the senate at this time, if you believe in god, please pray for them as i have and as i do. If you dont believe in god, this is america, thats your right. Send positive thoughts their way. Like most americans, i feel awful, i feel sad, and i feel mad. Ive known Steve Scalise a long time, mr. President i dont know, 20, 25 years. I know him hes a political friend, but hes also a personal friend. He he steve, i mean, he works all the time. He loves his family. He hell do anything for his constituents, and i know thats what we always say about each other, but its true with steve. He loves this place. Ive never seen him in a bad mood. I know he must be, hes human, but i dont think ive ever seen steve in a bad mood. Hes positive, hes can do. Every time i go to a function, steves there. I dont think he ever sleeps. He just does an extraordinarily good job representing the first congressional directs of louisiana. I am this is district of louisiana. A this is this is so unfair. I wish i understood why bad things happen to good people. My thoughts and prayers, as all of our thoughts and prayers, should be with jennifer, steves lovely wife. Steve and jennifer have two great kids, madison and harrison. I cannot imagine what his family is going through right now. Im just so sorry. Were also praying and hoping for a quick recovery for matt and for zack. I want to thank special agent gr nirch er griner and special agent bailey. There were, i dont know, 30, 40, 50 comment and senators out there today. It was an open field, but for the bravery of these two special agents and other members of the capitol police, it would have been a turkey shoot. No cover. You had a person thats as charitable as i can be right now armed with an Assault Rifle and a handgun and i just want to tell those two agents, thank you so much for doing your job and all the other Law Enforcement officials that supported them and that keep us safe every day. We have heard, mr. President , and i hope its not true, that this was a political shooting, that this person who decided to commit these despic despicable acts did it because he didnt like the political persuasion of the people at whom he decided to shoot. I hope that is not true. I hope that members of the media come back tonight, and after the secret service investigates, they come back and tell us that thats not true, mr. President. Because if it is true, this represents a new low for america. You know, reasonable people disagree and you have the right under our constitution to disagree. This is america. You can believe what you want. Within reason you can say what you want and most of us, i dare say all of us in congress, we would do anything we could to protect that right. But you and i guess youve got a constitutional right to hate if you want to, but i dont understand people who do who hate other people just because they dont agree with them politically. Its its not only nonsensical, its unamerican. And it if the reports are true, it breaks my heart that thats what we weve what weve come to. I think many of us have probably seen that that that attitude not become prevalent in america, but it has certainly become more than just a mere occurrence. Ill put it that way. The internet has been an extraordinary thing for commerce and for the quality of life for all of us, but sometimes i read what people write on facebook and i read the comments. The worst ones are the ones when people can comment anonymously in newspaper articles and just the hatred. I would hate to live with that much hate in my heart. Our thoughts and prayers are with steve and they are with jennifer and they are with madison and they are with harrison and they are with special agent gr nirch er griner and with special agent bailey and with zack and with mack mika. And my personal thoughts and prayers are with every american today who feels like i do, that this is just a sad, sad day for this great country. I dont know if theres any good that can come out of this, but if there is, i hope the good that does come out of this is that we all stop and think about the things that divide us and understand its okay to disagree. Ill see it again, reasonable people do. But you can disagree with somebody without hating them. Thank you, mr. President