Speaker 1: Ben Ferguson with you, Sendra Cruz with you. And the
Speaker 1: headline says it all. Trump rushed off the stage after
Speaker 1: assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally. Think the Lord the
Speaker 1: President is fine, that coming from his spokesperson, but there
Speaker 1: are others who have lost their life. Center your reaction
Speaker 1: to the shocking news.
Speaker 2: Well, it is shortly after eight pm East Coast time
Speaker 2: on Saturday, and the entire world just witnessed what appears
Speaker 2: to have been an assassination attempt. I'm President Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: All of the world is reeling. I am sitting here.
Speaker 2: Heidi and I watched it together. We are filled with
Speaker 2: anger and horror and shock. I can tell you that
Speaker 2: Heidi and I have been praying for Donald Trump. I
Speaker 2: don't know that there has been a moment when more
Speaker 2: people have prayed for Donald Trump than in the last hour.
Speaker 2: Lifting him up. Uh. It appears that he has struck
Speaker 2: in the ear. At this point, they're conflicting reports whether
Speaker 2: it was a bullet or a fragment of glass or
Speaker 2: something else. That he was bleeding from his ear. Uh.
Speaker 2: And and we are praying praying number one for protection,
Speaker 2: number two, that that he is all right. But we're
Speaker 2: also praying for for The reports are right now UH
Speaker 2: that that at least one person in attendance at the
Speaker 2: rally is dead and that another is in critical condition.
Speaker 2: And the report is also UH that that the suspected
Speaker 2: gun man is dead as well, presumably at the hands
Speaker 2: of Secret Service or local police. It is so recent
Speaker 2: that that we recognize that the facts are going to
Speaker 2: come out in hours and days to come as to
Speaker 2: who exactly this shooter is. That there are all sorts
Speaker 2: of reports on the internet, but I'm not going to
Speaker 2: speculate right now because I don't know if those tweets
Speaker 2: are accurate or not. But I am sure we will
Speaker 2: find out more about the shooter or if there was
Speaker 2: more than one shooter. There have been conflicting statements on
Speaker 2: that and what their motivation is. But I will say,
Speaker 2: sitting here, I am horrified. I am grateful for the
Speaker 2: Secret Service agents and for law enforcement who presumably stepped
Speaker 2: in and took out the shooter. I am incredibly grateful
Speaker 2: for God's providence that Donald Trump appears not to be
Speaker 2: seriously injured, and I'm praying. At this point, we don't
Speaker 2: know how many people at the rally may have been
Speaker 2: injured or worse, So I'm certainly praying for everyone there
Speaker 2: who was in harm's way. This is a horrific and
Speaker 2: dark moment in American history. We have not had an
Speaker 2: attempted presidential assassination since Ronald Reagan, since I was ten
Speaker 2: years old. That was a horrific moment in American history.
Speaker 2: And now twenty four years later, we're once again in
Speaker 2: a comfortable moment. Thankfully, then, as now the president survived.
Speaker 1: There are emotions that so many people listening to this
Speaker 1: are having. One is thankfulness that the president is okay.
Speaker 1: There's also sorrow that we hear that others have not survived,
Speaker 1: and then there's also this anger and frustration, and people
Speaker 1: look to leaders for advice, for wisdom, for comfort. I
Speaker 1: ask you the same question that my kids asked me,
Speaker 1: Why did this happen? And what happens next? And it's
Speaker 1: a question that all three of my boys asked me
Speaker 1: as I was watching this unfold on TV, and I said,
Speaker 1: I don't know why this happens. There are bad people
Speaker 1: in the world and there's good people, and sometimes evil
Speaker 1: comes after good.
Speaker 2: Well, that's right, and I hope comes of this is
Speaker 2: that everyone counts to ten and exhales. I hope that
Speaker 2: the political anger and rhetoric that it ratchets down. There
Speaker 2: is so much vitriol, there is so much hate. There's
Speaker 2: been so much hate directed to Donald Trump, so much
Speaker 2: just just just vile bitterness. You and I and many
Speaker 2: others have worried for some time that that some lunatic
Speaker 2: would attempt to harm the president. And and you know,
Speaker 2: there is zero place for political violence on any side
Speaker 2: of the aisle. This has no place regardless of whether
Speaker 2: you agree or disagree with the office holder. If you
Speaker 2: disagree with the office holder, you can make your views plain.
Speaker 2: That's why we have debates, that's why we write off eds,
Speaker 2: that's why we vote the ballot box. But political violence
Speaker 2: has no place. And I hope the overheated and in
Speaker 2: far too many instances, unmitigated hate. My prayer is that
Speaker 2: that that some of that is diminished, that that that
Speaker 2: that that we move in the direction of having a
Speaker 2: civil and real public discourse rather than just just screaming
Speaker 2: at each other. I will tell you then, I fear.
Speaker 2: I fear things are going to escalate, that there's going
Speaker 2: to be anger on both sides of the aisle. I
Speaker 2: don't want to see this happen. I will tell you.
Speaker 2: I sat there. You know, my immediate thoughts were thinking back,
Speaker 2: thinking back to the nineteen sixties, thinking back to to
Speaker 2: to win in rapid succession. JFK and Martin Luther King
Speaker 2: Junior and Bobby Kennedy were all assassinated, and the horrors
Speaker 2: that brought this country through. What I We're not at
Speaker 2: that moment in time, and I pray that we are not,
Speaker 2: but it is going to take the leaders be escalating
Speaker 2: for a moment, and I hope that's what we see.
Speaker 1: Finally, I just want to humanize the president for a second,
Speaker 1: because I think sometimes people forget that not only is
Speaker 1: he a husband, he is a dad, he is a grandfather.
Speaker 1: I've spent time with President Trump. You spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time with President Trump. I know personally that he is.
Speaker 1: When I see him, I don't always see him as
Speaker 1: this guy that was the president. I see him as
Speaker 1: a genuinely sincere and kind man. I remember when he
Speaker 1: found out we were having twins. He said he wanted
Speaker 1: to talk to Anna and tried to convince her for
Speaker 1: ten minutes to name one of the boys, Donald saying
Speaker 1: it was presidential and he was so happy that we
Speaker 1: were going to have kids. And he called and he said,
Speaker 1: I hear you're expecting twins. I said, yes, or miss
Speaker 1: President I am And he said, he said, well you
Speaker 1: got a name. Two of them are they? What are this?
Speaker 1: They're boys. He goes, well, you need a good name.
Speaker 1: Donald's a pretty pretty good name. And I laughed at
Speaker 1: He said, well, you'd have to talk to my wife
Speaker 1: about that. And he goes, well, where is she And
Speaker 1: I said, she's downstairs and he goes put her on
Speaker 1: the phone. That is the human side of him. He
Speaker 1: also called after they were born. It wasn't done that day.
Speaker 1: He called after they were born. And that's the side
Speaker 1: of Donald Trump that I want people to understand to night,
Speaker 1: these are human beings. You're a human being, Senator. People
Speaker 1: that say horrible things about you and come after you,
Speaker 1: and I remind people. I try to remind me and
Speaker 1: they say it about me, not at the same level
Speaker 1: as you get it every day and the president gets
Speaker 1: it every day. But we're still people.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, I spoke with President Trump on the phone.
Speaker 2: I think it was three days ago. He was in
Speaker 2: good spirits. I have to say, watching the footage tonight
Speaker 2: when the shots are fired, when he's hits, and then
Speaker 2: when he surrounded by Secret Service and being escorted off
Speaker 2: and he eats, clutches his fist and pounds his fist
Speaker 2: into the air. Sh'S extraordinary. I mean it is breathtaking
Speaker 2: after being shot. The leadership he demonstrated. You know, it
Speaker 2: reminded me when when Reagan was shot and in nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty one, and when he when he was going into
Speaker 2: the hospital and he said to Nancy Reagan, he said, honey,
Speaker 2: I forgot the duck. And he also said to the
Speaker 2: doctors as he was being wheeled into to surgery, and
Speaker 2: a lot of people don't remember how close Ronald Reagan
Speaker 2: came to dying that day, and that the bullet, had
Speaker 2: it been just an inch further over, would have killed
Speaker 2: him that day. And and and he said to the doctors,
Speaker 2: I hope, I hope you all are all Republicans, and
Speaker 2: and and having the sense of humor to and and
Speaker 2: the presence to say that even while going into surgery
Speaker 2: is extraordinary President Trump, like crowning it's fist and standing
Speaker 2: up strong. It was a remarkable moment of leadership, but
Speaker 2: also was reminiscent of Teddy Roosevelt when he was shot
Speaker 2: giving a speech and kept on giving the speech. I mean,
Speaker 2: he is a fighting spirit that that is inspirational. And
Speaker 2: I just want to call on everyone listening. We're going
Speaker 2: to have time when we learn more about what exactly happened.
Speaker 2: We learned more about the shooter and who he was
Speaker 2: and what his motivations were, and there's going to be
Speaker 2: time to figure out what went wrong, what could have
Speaker 2: been done to prevent this. But right now, just as
Speaker 2: a country, I hope we have a moment, a moment,
Speaker 2: you know. I think back to after after nine to eleven.
Speaker 2: After nine to eleven, we had a moment where's a
Speaker 2: country we came together and we had unity, and we
Speaker 2: hugged each other and we just lifted our country up.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to ask every one in the country
Speaker 2: prayed for President Trump, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat,
Speaker 2: Pray for President Trump so that that that that he
Speaker 2: is our right now, but also that he'd be protected.
Speaker 2: But also pray for President Biden and and pray for
Speaker 2: all of our leaders that they be protected from political violence.
Speaker 2: That we don't see uh crazed angry, zealous, uh engaging
Speaker 2: in violence. We have seen that shoe. We have seen
Speaker 2: that to nice and and and my prayer is that
Speaker 2: our country steps back from this brink and and and again,
Speaker 2: I just just want to express my my, my incredible
Speaker 2: thanks for secret service at law enforcement, and also pray,
Speaker 2: pray for the people who who may have been shot today,
Speaker 2: but the bystanders, the families of anyone injured or killed,
Speaker 2: and just pray for our nation. I I really believe
Speaker 2: America that needs God's grace right now. That's my prayer,
Speaker 2: and and and and I hope it cheers Stuck.
Speaker 1: It is Hug your family, hug your kids, call your
Speaker 1: friends and tell them you love them. And I just
Speaker 1: think this is, like you said, a very pivotal moment
Speaker 1: in our country's history. And I hope that we all
Speaker 1: take that deep breath and pray for the president and
Speaker 1: especially those at that rally. Senator Cruz, and I will
Speaker 1: be back with you, I can promise you in a
Speaker 1: couple of days. We'll have a lot more to talk about.
Speaker 1: But I thought it was important that we come on
Speaker 1: here and have this conversation now. Senator, take care of
Speaker 1: the fam and and I will see you, and to
Speaker 1: everyone listening, we'll see you guys soon.