GOP: We Must Turn the Temperature Down

Speaker Mike Johnson joined CNN’s AC360 with Anderson Cooper to discuss the need for unity following the assassination attempt of President Trump and the House’s efforts to investigate the security failure.

Johnson was Tuesday’s KVML “Newsmaker of the Day”. Below are excerpts from the interview:

On the need for national unity:

“It’s a dark time in the history of the country. This is a dangerous time. And we’ve been suggesting that all elected officials, from the President on down, really try to draw the country together. We need a unified message. We need to turn the temperature down. And I think it’s a time for moral clarity. I mean, I think everyone in elected office has a responsibility in all of this, and we need to remind this country that we’re all together. You know, there’s no place for this rhetoric that has heated up the political environment and it leads to this kind of action, and we all have to do our part.”

On the responsibility of elected officials to turn down political rhetoric:

“There are offenders on both sides, of course. We’ve got to get back to civility in this country. I mean, I’m one that tries to work on that in Congress. There are others as well. But here’s the thing: I mean, it, it’s an objective truth that Donald Trump is probably the most persecuted and attacked political figure in history, certainly among presidents, maybe at least since Abraham Lincoln, Civil War era.

“And that takes a toll. I mean, when my colleagues go out and say, ‘democracy will end, the republic will be in an emergency stage if Donald Trump wins for president,’ it’s just not true. It’s another election. And when they say that kind of rhetoric and they heat it up like that, there are people out there that take these things to heart and they act upon them. Politicians are not responsible for that, but we do have a responsibility to be responsible. I mean, we’re not asking for much, let’s just dial the rhetoric down. Let’s have a vigorous debate. That’s what our country is built upon. But we have to see one another as fellow Americans and not enemies.”

On the House’s effort to investigate the assassination attempt:

“I called last night for hearings. We’re going to do this as quickly as possible, to get the answers that the American people deserve. What happened here? I mean, I think pretty clearly there was a security lapse, at least. And we need to find out, for example, why were drones not used in the area? I’ve not gotten a satisfactory answer on that yet. I mean, that seems pretty obvious that you would do that so you could see people on rooftops. This one from, the vantage point of the stage, was just seemingly an easy thing to monitor, and they didn’t. Of course, we’ve all heard the eyewitness accounts, the people on the ground who saw a guy with a gun on the rooftop. Why wasn’t it stopped sooner? Lots of questions. We have more questions than we have answers, but Congress is going to get down to the bottom of this.”

The “Newsmaker of the Day” is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.