Political Quotes

“I rise today to call for empathy in the wake of fear-driven hate. Fear has become the air we breathe in America. Parents breathe it as they drop their kids at school, wondering if today will be the day they get a call that no parent should ever get. Teachers breathe it, walking into classrooms, rehearsing how they might shield their students. Immigrant families breathe it in their own neighborhoods where ICE raids at schools and festivals turn everyday life into a source of terror. Transgender Americans breathe it just stepping outside, never knowing if they will be targeted for simply existing as themselves. Journalists and everyday Americans breathe it for simply exercising their free speech rights. Elected leaders, including myself, breathe it after watching colleagues and public figures gunned down in front of their families. This is the America we are living in right now, and this is not okay. We don't need to agree with someone's politics to say that their murder is a tragedy. The assassination of Charles Kirk, the murders of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the countless children lost to school shootings, are not partisan issues. These are human tragedies. Violence against any American is violence against us all. Yet what did we hear in the immediate aftermath? We didn't have space for grace or respect for families left behind. We heard Fox News hosts declare this is a war. Mr. Speaker, that is not what America needs right now.”