Minnesota Senator Tina Smith Decries 'Politically Motivated' Shootings Of Two State Lawmakers

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Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) spoke about the shootings of two Democratic state lawmakers in Minnesota on Saturday.

Transcript

00:00Well, of course, it's so deeply concerning.

00:03There were a number of us that were on this list,

00:06and I want to just do a huge shout out and thank you

00:09to the unbelievable efforts of local law enforcement

00:12in the metro area and the FBI and others

00:14that were so quick to respond and think ahead

00:17to what would be happening with this terrible attack.

00:21And I'm very grateful for the law enforcement folks

00:25that have been keeping me and my family safe

00:27because, of course, we still don't know

00:28where this assassin is.

00:32He has not yet been found.

00:36Well, I woke up at around 7.15 yesterday morning

00:38to find that I had a huge number of attacks.

00:40I don't usually sleep with my phone right next to my bed,

00:43and so I immediately called Jeff LaMonica, my chief of staff,

00:47who was glad to know that I was safe

00:49and gave me the information.

00:51The governor had reached out to me very, very early

00:55in the morning to let me know about this attack.

00:58It took us a while, of course, to piece together exactly what had happened

01:01and to, you know, the devastating news that Melissa and her husband, Mark,

01:07had died in this attack.

01:08And as the pieces came together, we were all just, you know,

01:13hoping that the perpetrator of this terrible violence,

01:17this was clearly from the very beginning, it was clear that this was politically motivated.

01:22And so the worry about what else, what other terrible damage he might do was uppermost in our minds

01:27as we were waiting all day long, basically, to see what was happening.

01:32And again, hundreds and hundreds of people have been out there protecting others

01:37and making sure that people did not get, you know, caught in any crossfire

01:42and waiting to try to, and seeking, trying to find this man who, as I said, has still not been found.

01:48Yeah, well, I'm very grateful for Senator Schumer doing, taking that step to make sure that my family and I are safe.

01:57And also, I spoke with Majority Leader John Thune yesterday, who made a similar commitment.

02:03I think that the level of threat that lawmakers are exposed to is just unacceptable,

02:12and that we have to find a way of ratcheting down this just intensity that is surrounding people.

02:21We will, you know, I'm grateful that I personally feel safe,

02:25but this is no way for our government to work when people, any number of us, feel this kind of personal threat.

02:36Well, I just, I can't bear to think that it has come to that,

02:39but I think we are at a tipping point right now when we see these kinds of personal threats.

02:44It gets worse, not better. We see, I mean, you know, what happened here,

02:48and the tragedy that's happened in Minnesota is not an isolated incident.

02:51It is something that we have been seeing increasingly.

02:54And, of course, it was only just a few days after my colleague Alex Padilla was literally thrown to the ground

02:59and handcuffed for showing up at a press conference.

03:02I'm not in any way conflating those two things, except to say that the level of just sort of the intensity

03:10of what lawmakers are exposed to is, it just strikes me as being very dangerous.

03:15So I don't want to think that I need to have a personal security detail wherever I go,

03:20but I think we really have to look at the situation that we're in.

03:24And I think that's a very important thing.

03:26And this is a very important thing that I know that there is,

03:27to say that there isn't going anywhere in my mind.

03:29And I think we're going to be elevated.

03:31And then there's something that I can do, because you worry about,

03:32and there's something that we're in the sky.

03:33And that's kind of a policy that we're in,

03:35and that's kind of a policy that we're in.

03:37And I don't want to put in about two things that we're in.

03:40So it's got to sit back and have to look at the establishment of our powers.

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