Floor SpeechBipartisan2026-04-29

WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS' DINNER SHOOTING

TradeTechnology

Context

On 2026-04-29, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) delivered a floor speech titled "WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS' DINNER SHOOTING" in the Senate. The speech addressed trade policy and also covered technology. It referenced legislation including S2091, S2092.

Full Text

WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS' DINNER SHOOTING

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 75 (Wednesday, April 29, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 75 (Wednesday, April 29, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S2091-S2092] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS' DINNER SHOOTING Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, every American should be grateful that President Trump, Vice President Vance, the Cabinet, and thousands of other attendees were not harmed during Saturday's disturbing shooting that took place at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. We now know that the shooter was attempting to kill the President, and this was the third assassination attempt we have seen on his life in the past couple of years. Now, some Democrats--and I would include former President Obama in this--some have claimed that we don't have details about the suspect's motives, but we do have plenty of details, and we know that the shooter actually laid a good bit of this out. He did a manifesto, and he sent that manifesto to his family shortly before the attack. The shooter said he was going to target administration officials ``prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.'' It shows you he thought this through. Now, his reason for this, he said President Trump is--and I quote his wording here again--``pedophile, rapist, traitor.'' Now, this is unhinged rhetoric. It is completely in line with the lies that the Democrats have repeated on just about a daily basis every day regarding President Trump. We have heard it on TV, on podcasts, on social media, in their speeches, and it is something else that they continue with this rhetoric. And Gov. Tim Walz who, of course, was the VP nominee in the last election once said: No one has ever been more dangerous to this country than Donald Trump, and he is a fascist to his core. Again, that was Gov. Tim Walz. Now, some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have called the President an ``existential threat to democracy,'' ``the most significant threat to American democracy since the Civil War,'' and an ``authoritarian.'' And some of them have chosen to compare him to historical figures, and that historical figure they usually use is Hitler. And, of course, Kamala Harris once compared him to a ``communist dictator.'' This is reckless rhetoric. This is the kind of rhetoric that needs to stop because this places a target on our President, and this is the type of rhetoric that has no place in civil public life. Now, we are celebrating America 250, and we are looking at how this Nation has remained strong and free. Indeed, I think that as you look at our history, those tenets of faith, family, freedom, hope, and opportunity have served us well. And how do we achieve that American dream? Well, we have kept ourselves free and focused on achieving that dream for each and every person. They all look different. Everybody's dream is different of what they want, what their goals are, the type of community they want to live in. They are all different. But we arrive at decisions of what kind of communities we will have, what kind of country we will have--those issues of importance--we arrive there through robust, respectful, bipartisan debate. We don't get there by exercising reckless rhetoric, some of which I have quoted. It is so disappointing to hear this from some of our colleagues and then to see the type of vitriol that this spurs. Now, when we have robust, respectful, bipartisan debate--I share my opinion; someone else shares their opinion--what this does is to empower not only us, but the people that we represent, to enter into that debate, to be a part of the public square, to defend our freedoms, to build consensus, and to serve the American people and to preserve the freedoms that we enjoy. Now, without it, without having that marketplace of ideas, without that robust, respectful debate that leads to exchange and asking: What if we did this? What if we did that? If we did not have that, then this Nation would head to a very dark place. And this latest assassination attempt on President Trump is another reminder of what can happen when Americans abandon the possibility of working together and instead of settling their differences by debate in the public square, they choose to settle these differences by violence, by reckless rhetoric. So as we approach our Nation's 250th anniversary, we need to remember that it is this exchange of ideas and this robust, respectful debate that has helped to sustain the freedoms that we enjoy in this country. [[Page S2092]] ____________________

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WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS' DINNER SHOOTING Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 75 (Wednesday, April 29, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 75 (Wednesday, April 29, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S2091-S2092] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS' DINNER SHOOTING Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, every American should be grateful that President Trump, Vice President Vance, the Cabinet, and thousands of other attendees were not harmed during Saturday's disturbing shooting that took place at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. We now know that the shooter was attempting to kill the President, and this was the third assassination attempt we have seen on his life in the past couple of years. Now, some Democrats--and I would include former President Obama in this--some have claimed that we don't have details about the suspect's motives, but we do have plenty of details, and we know that the shooter actually laid a good bit of this out. He did a manifesto, and he sent that manifesto to his family shortly before the attack. The shooter said he was going to target administration officials ``prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.'' It shows you he thought this through. Now, his reason for this, he said President Trump is--and I quote his wording here again--``pedophile, rapist, traitor.'' Now, this is unhinged rhetoric. It is completely in line with the lies that the Democrats have repeated on just about a daily basis every day regarding President Trump. We have heard it on TV, on podcasts, on social media, in their speeches, and it is something else that they continue with this rhetoric. And Gov. Tim Walz who, of course, was the VP nominee in the last election once said: No one has ever been more dangerous to this country than Donald Trump, and he is a fascist to his core. Again, that was Gov. Tim Walz. Now, some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have called the President an ``existential threat to democracy,'' ``the most significant threat to American democracy since the Civil War,'' and an ``authoritarian.'' And some of them have chosen to compare him to historical figures, and that historical figure they usually use is Hitler. And, of course, Kamala Harris once compared him to a ``communist dictator.'' This is reckless rhetoric. This is the kind of rhetoric that needs to stop because this places a target on our President, and this is the type of rhetoric that has no place in civil public life. Now, we are celebrating America 250, and we are looking at how this Nation has remained strong and free. Indeed, I think that as you look at our history, those tenets of faith, family, freedom, hope, and opportunity have served us well. And how do we achieve that American dream? Well, we have kept ourselves free and focused on achieving that dream for each and every person. They all look different. Everybody's dream is different of what they want, what their goals are, the type of community they want to live in. They are all different. But we arrive at decisions of what kind of communities we will have, what kind of country we will have--those issues of importance--we arrive there through robust, respectful, bipartisan debate. We don't get there by exercising reckless rhetoric, some of which I have quoted. It is so disappointing to hear this from some of our colleagues and then to see the type of vitriol that this spurs. Now, when we have robust, respectful, bipartisan debate--I share my opinion; someone else shares their opinion--what this does is to empower not only us, but the people that we represent, to enter into that debate, to be a part of the public square, to defend our freedoms, to build consensus, and to serve the American people and to preserve the freedoms that we enjoy. Now, without it, without having that marketplace of ideas, without that robust, respectful debate that leads to exchange and asking: What if we did this? What if we did that? If we did not have that, then this Nation would head to a very dark place. And this latest assassination attempt on President Trump is another reminder of what can happen when Americans abandon the possibility of working together and instead of settling their differences by debate in the public square, they choose to settle these differences by violence, by reckless rhetoric. So as we approach our Nation's 250th anniversary, we need to remember that it is this exchange of ideas and this robust, respectful debate that has helped to sustain the freedoms that we enjoy in this country. [[Page S2092]] ____________________