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Speaker 1: So as the FBI told us, in law enforcement in

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Speaker 1: Utah told us they know how the killer of Charlie

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Speaker 1: Kirk got into Utah, to the university there, Tony Katz,

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Speaker 1: Tony Katz today, good to be with you, a Utah

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Speaker 1: Valley University. They were able to track this killer through

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Speaker 1: the stairwells up to the roof and then off the

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Speaker 1: roof and through neighborhoods where the killer discarded the weapon

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Speaker 1: as they describe it, and at least that may have

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Speaker 1: changed by the time you hear this, a bolt action rifle.

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Speaker 1: I have nothing more than that Charlie Kirk assassinated, murdered.

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Speaker 1: I think the correct term is assassinated at the age

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Speaker 1: of thirty one. Senator Jim Banks joins us right now,

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Speaker 1: Senator from Indiana Republican, My Senator, and Sir, I did

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Speaker 1: not have interactions with Charlie, not on a bad note

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Speaker 1: of any kind. Just we met once. I've spoken at

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Speaker 1: a turning point event before here in Indiana. But we

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Speaker 1: did not have daily interactions. You had more interactions than

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Speaker 1: I did, sir. So let's start with where you are

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Speaker 1: less than twenty four hours after the assassination of Charlie.

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Speaker 2: Kirk well Tony. I'm still processing it. Obviously a shocking

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Speaker 2: moment yesterday. I knew Charlie pretty well. He was a

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Speaker 2: he was a supporter of mine. We communicated often about

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Speaker 2: big votes and big issues in Congress. I just I can't.

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Speaker 2: I think about my wife, my daughters, and then I

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Speaker 2: think about his wife and his young kids and what

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Speaker 2: they're going through. I mean, there's there's there's nothing more

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Speaker 2: important than that to pray, pray for his family. But

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Speaker 2: the whole the whole country is processing this. Charlie Kirk

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Speaker 2: was very close to President Trump, very very close to

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Speaker 2: the Trump family. And a lot of people are affected

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Speaker 2: by this. A lot of young a lot of young

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Speaker 2: people who have been involved in my campaigns, a lot

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Speaker 2: of young hoo's, your conservatives and college kids who have

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Speaker 2: been impacted by turning Point and Charlie. I mean, I've

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Speaker 2: talked to so many people that listened to him every

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Speaker 2: single day and that are very impacted by this. So

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Speaker 2: my heart goes out to his family all who are

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Speaker 2: impacted by it. Charlie was a great guy. He was

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Speaker 2: a warrior, but he had a he had a great style.

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Speaker 2: I mean, he was a happy warrior, a great communicator

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Speaker 2: of our time, and I'm going to miss him and

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Speaker 2: miss the impact that he that he's had. But we're gonna,

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Speaker 2: we're going to remember him, and we're gonna we're gonna

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Speaker 2: emulate him and do our best to carry on the

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Speaker 2: important work that he's done.

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Speaker 1: You know the concept of impact, and certainly you saw

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Speaker 1: the crowds that would show up when he would go

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Speaker 1: to universities. You know, the whole proved me wrong concept

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Speaker 1: and very often people showed up just to see whatever

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Speaker 1: leftist of the day is gonna get smacked around with facts,

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Speaker 1: logic and reason. But you, as as somebody who has

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Speaker 1: run for office, you certainly were there as President Trump

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Speaker 1: running for the White House. Again, what did you see

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Speaker 1: as the impact? What is the tangible you can connect

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Speaker 1: us to regarding uh, the impact of turning Point USA

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Speaker 1: and Charlie more.

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Speaker 2: Specifically, Yeah, I went back and read some of my

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Speaker 2: text messages with Charlie late last night, and it just

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Speaker 2: reminded me that he at times Tony he was He

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Speaker 2: would push me. I mean he would he would make

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Speaker 2: me think about a big vote, and sometimes sometimes we

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Speaker 2: would we would disagree on an issue he didn't think

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Speaker 2: I was I was fighting hard enough, and you know

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Speaker 2: that that's the that's the personal impact. He he endorsed

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Speaker 2: me that the very day that I got into my

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Speaker 2: Senate race. And I remember the young people that reacted

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Speaker 2: to that, who got him involved in my campaign because

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Speaker 2: they followed him and the important work that he did.

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Speaker 2: But I think it's it's it's big. It's bigger than that.

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Speaker 2: That's the personal part of it. The bigger part of

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Speaker 2: it is the many young people I think about, even

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Speaker 2: family members of my own, who aren't, who aren't, who aren't,

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Speaker 2: who weren't politically active, but they were inspired by him

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Speaker 2: to get active and to get involved, and they would

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Speaker 2: go they would go to one of these Turning Point conferences.

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Speaker 2: And this was what was the incredible part about Turning Point,

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Speaker 2: that these these massive conferences of speakers that Charlie would

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Speaker 2: put together, and then the young people who would fly

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Speaker 2: to from Indiana to Florida to go to a conference,

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Speaker 2: and they came back fired up to do something about it,

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Speaker 2: fired up and inspired. And that's what Charlie did every

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Speaker 2: single day, is he he motivated and built a movement

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Speaker 2: of young people. There's there's there's a reason why young

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Speaker 2: Americans are turning to our side more than ever before

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Speaker 2: in my lifetime. Is because of the important work the

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Speaker 2: Turning Point and Charlie Kirk has done to inspire that generation.

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Speaker 2: They're thinking right, they're becoming conservative, they're supporting President Trump

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Speaker 2: and the Trump policies because of the important work that

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Speaker 2: Charlie did.

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Speaker 1: Talking to Senator Jim Banks of Indiana, certainly we saw

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Speaker 1: President Trump be shot in Butler, Pennsylvania. We see this

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Speaker 1: and there's this conversation about political rhetoric and ginning people up.

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Speaker 1: I argue that it indeed happens. I have argued that

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Speaker 1: the political left has been searching for a lone wolf

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Speaker 1: for a long time. When they say Trump is a

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Speaker 1: threat to democracy, Republicans a threat to democracy, a threat

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Speaker 1: to women, a threat to this They're gonna take your rights,

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Speaker 1: They're gonna put you on back in the chains, those

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Speaker 1: kinds of commentaries. But in the end, it is the

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Speaker 1: individual who is responsible for their own actions. Should we

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Speaker 1: as a society be looking at those people who have

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Speaker 1: been screaming and yelling Trump is a threat, Republicans are threat,

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Speaker 1: Charlie Kirk is a threat. Your local radio host is

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Speaker 1: a threat. Are they responsible for this or is the

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Speaker 1: individual who engages the act responsible for this?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it's

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Speaker 2: the the these crazy people, and they're you know, I've

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Speaker 2: I've I've seen it. I've seen it, Tony. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I've met these people. These people get I you know,

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Speaker 2: my my, my, my family has had had these threats,

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Speaker 2: and it's you know, you're you're, you're, you're tackling a larger,

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Speaker 2: a larger issue here. I mean, I the only thought

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Speaker 2: that I have though, is the day, the day before yesterday,

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Speaker 2: a video goes viral on x of a woman brutally

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Speaker 2: murdered on a on a bus, on a public on

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Speaker 2: a public bus in North Carolina. And then and then yesterday,

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Speaker 2: my friend Charlie Kirk assassinated for what he believed, for

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Speaker 2: what he believed in, because he's effective and because he

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Speaker 2: close to to Donald Trump, that's why he was assassinated.

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Speaker 2: And then you watch it play out online And how

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Speaker 2: can a healthy how can any healthy society watch these

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Speaker 2: these brutal murders play out on X online? And how

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Speaker 2: can we be a healthy society when that continues to happen?

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Speaker 2: And then we then we want we all watch it.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I I there's something there's a part of

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Speaker 2: that that that that grieves me too. That there's something

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Speaker 2: very very wrong going on here, and I don't know

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Speaker 2: how to stop it. I don't know how to fix it.

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Speaker 2: I mean, this is the health of our country and

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Speaker 2: our and our society as people, and we got we

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Speaker 2: got to be better. We got to do something. We

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Speaker 2: gotta do it. We got to do something different to

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Speaker 2: stop something like that.

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Speaker 1: Talking with Senator Jim Banks of Indiana, I I have argued, sir,

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Speaker 1: and I think you may have heard me discuss this before,

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Speaker 1: that the only way out is through that there is

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Speaker 1: no way to flip the switch and make people stop

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Speaker 1: being horrific, hateful, violent, But rather we have to see

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Speaker 1: our way through, and the concepts and the philosophies have

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Speaker 1: to be defeated. That this is a ballot box conversation.

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Speaker 1: It seems obvious that for some the idea of this

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Speaker 1: attack is to stop the speech from happening. But as

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Speaker 1: we heard from President Trump in his Oval Office address yesterday,

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Speaker 1: as we have heard from others, these things don't work

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Speaker 1: that way. You see the assassination of Charlie Kirk and

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Speaker 1: whether it's a radio host like myself on a local

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Speaker 1: or national level, or you in your work, and people

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Speaker 1: are do television, video, other things. They're not going to stop.

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Speaker 1: Is there an effect that we see coming into the

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Speaker 1: elections where maybe that will teach some of these violent

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Speaker 1: people you can't actually stop this. It only inspires people

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Speaker 1: to be more active.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I hope. So. I mean they knew Donald Trump

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Speaker 2: was going to be at the president again. Was the

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Speaker 2: day that he was shot in Pennsylvania. I mean that

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Speaker 2: that was the day that I knew it. I think

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Speaker 2: it's I think it's the day that he knew it,

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Speaker 2: and and that became true. The country revolted against that

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Speaker 2: despicable act. And in Pennsylvania now you have have have

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Speaker 2: this incident. I think about, you know, my first year

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Speaker 2: in Congress back in twenty seventeen. I'll never forget, you know,

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Speaker 2: where I was and what I was doing when I

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Speaker 2: found out that Steve Scalise was shot on the baseball

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Speaker 2: diamond outside of Washington, d C. Practicing with the Congressional

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Speaker 2: baseball team. So my hope is that the country will

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Speaker 2: will reject, to your point, reject it, go to the

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Speaker 2: ballot box, reject these tactics, and then we can move

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Speaker 2: on and restore this great country and remember that what

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Speaker 2: makes it great is that we can't civilly disagree. And

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Speaker 2: it's the greatest country in the history of the world

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Speaker 2: because we we have these rights to think differently and

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Speaker 2: and uh and and act act out on the differences

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Speaker 2: of opinion and a peaceful uh and and civil way

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Speaker 2: through our through the civic process that we have. And

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Speaker 2: and that's what it's all about. So to your point,

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Speaker 2: I hope, I hope that would be the case.

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Speaker 1: Before before I let you go. Uh, does anything that

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Speaker 1: you witnessed in Utah does it change the way you operate?

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Speaker 1: Does it change the way your office is operating or

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Speaker 1: any fellow senators?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it. You know it. It reminds us

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Speaker 2: in the in the public eye and when we're out

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Speaker 2: in the public and you know, going to events to

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Speaker 2: be careful. I mean, I think of my I think

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Speaker 2: of my kids, I think of my wife, I think

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Speaker 2: of my staff and keeping them safe and protected. Of

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Speaker 2: of course, I mean it. It crosses my mind, and

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Speaker 2: I know I know it crosses the mind of every

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Speaker 2: single one of my colleagues in the Senate as they

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Speaker 2: as they think about this too. On Capital Hill, we

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Speaker 2: have the Capitol Police who are the heroes that protect

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Speaker 2: me and my staff every single day. And when I'm

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Speaker 2: when I'm back in Indiana and traveling around the state,

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Speaker 2: you know, we take precautions too. So but I you know,

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Speaker 2: I I would be lying if we you know, myself

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Speaker 2: and my colleagues that we don't talk about that, we

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Speaker 2: don't think about it, and I'm sure that it will

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Speaker 2: lead to more more measures that we'll all take to

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Speaker 2: stay safe when we're in the public.

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Speaker 1: Senator Jim Banks, I appreciate you taking the time to

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Speaker 1: be with us more to get to I'm Tony Katz.

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Speaker 1: This is Tony Katz today,