00:00Hey guys, so obviously we just had a very heartbreaking but
00:05also very gratifying visit here in Minneapolis with the parents,
00:10the principal, the pastor of the children who died in this terrible shooting about
00:15a week ago.
00:16It was obviously a very sad moment but also in a lot of ways a very rewarding
00:21moment that these parents opened up their lives, opened up their hearts.
00:25They told me about their kids.
00:26They told me about their families.
00:28They told me about the community supporting them.
00:30And that was just an amazing thing to see, an amazing thing to witness,
00:33an amazing thing to get to be a part of.
00:36There are a few things that I take away from this.
00:40The first is, as the parents themselves told me, why do we talk so much about
00:45the brutal maniac who shot up this school and not enough about the innocent
00:50children who lost their lives and were full of life and were people,
00:54people with hopes and dreams in their own right.
00:56I wish that we talked a lot more about Harper, who was a beautiful young girl.
01:00She had a beautiful smile.
01:01The kind of smile that would turn a bad day into a good one and was very proud
01:06of the fact that she just had her first communion a couple of years ago.
01:10She was one of the children who lost her life.
01:12I also wish we talked a little bit more about Fletcher.
01:15Fletcher is a very rambunctious, was a very rambunctious and energetic kid,
01:19was a beautiful kid, had an incredible head of hair.
01:22And his parents actually, his dad for the first time, revisited the chapel with me
01:27where his son lost his life.
01:29And that was the first time that he had been in the chapel since his son was taken from him.
01:33We should talk more about these kids.
01:34We should talk less about this shooter.
01:37We should talk less about the crazy person who took these children from us.
01:40We should talk about these kids, their hopes and their dreams,
01:43and the fact that they had a full life ahead of them that was cut short.
01:46But I want to make just a few more comments and then I'll take a couple of questions.
01:51So number one, you know, I've had a lot of good days and a lot of interesting days
01:57and a lot of things have happened to me since I've become the Vice President of the United States.
02:01I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did
02:06because I really felt like these parents, in the midst of the worst grief of their entire lives,
02:12they opened up their lives and they opened up their hearts and they made me part of it.
02:15So I'd ask a couple of things straight from the parents and straight from the families to my fellow Americans.
02:20First of all, while two kids lost their lives, there's still one kid that's in very serious condition.
02:26And every single family, the family of Lydia who luckily recovered but we visited her in the hospital,
02:32the family of the two who died, Harper and Fletcher, all three of those families said,
02:37please say a prayer.
02:38So to my fellow Americans, if you're the praying type, say a prayer for this innocent girl
02:43who's actually in surgery right now, that the swelling will go down, that she will be okay
02:49because she's still in a fight for her life and every single family to a person is desperate
02:54that the death toll, which currently is at two, stays at two.
02:58And I think if you're a praying type, you ought to say a prayer for this innocent young girl.
03:02The second thing that I'd say is, look, speaking to my fellow Americans who are parents in particular,
03:08there is nothing that you can say that can take away the grief that these parents are dealing with.
03:13There is no word that can possibly describe the feeling or the emotion or the heartbreak.
03:19One of the ways that I'm going to try to honor these parents and the children that they lost is by being a better dad
03:25and hugging my kids tight tonight and making sure that they know that their dad loves them
03:31because there are two families who are not going to get that opportunity ever again.
03:35And if you do have kids, if you're lucky enough to have a son or a daughter, make sure that they know that they love you.
03:41Make sure that you hug your kids tight because there are families in Minneapolis who won't be able to do that ever again.
03:46So with that, I'll take a couple questions.
03:49Sir, Governor Wolf said that he was going to call a special legislative session to consider potentially new gun laws.
03:53What would you like to see state lawmakers do?
03:55What action would you like them to take?
03:57Well, I saw that news and I talked a little bit about that with the families today.
04:00Look, I'm not going to tell the Minnesota lawmakers or the governor exactly how they should respond to this tragedy.
04:06I think that there are obviously, there's a strong desire from across the political spectrum to do something so that these shootings are less common.
04:15I think that it's important that they actually take steps that are durable, that are going to work.
04:19But besides that, I'm not an expert in Minnesota law. I won't pretend to be.
04:24I would just say take the concerns of these parents seriously.
04:27I think all of us, Democrat, Republican, and Independent, want these school shootings to happen less frequently.
04:32Hopefully, there's some steps that we can take to make that happen.
04:35Mr. Vice President, I know the parents want to honor the lives of their children.
04:39And can we do that while we look into the root cause of some of these shooters?
04:43For example, this shooter was emulating the Nashville shooter who also identified as transgender and who also targeted Christian kids.
04:50What can we learn from that? And should we be investigating people who are experiencing gender dysphoria and are exhibiting signs that they might be targeting kids?
04:59Well, certainly we should be investigating people who are planning on targeting kids.
05:02And I think that one of the unfortunate lessons of this particular shooting is that this person who showed clear signs of derangement slipped through the cracks.
05:10And I actually talked to the families about this. I talked to the principal and the pastor about this.
05:15There is broad recognition. And it's interesting. Every single parent I spoke to wants something to happen.
05:20Every single parent I talked to, you know, we didn't talk a lot about politics as such.
05:25But I get the sense they came from a wide diversity of political perspectives.
05:29But every single one of them, they were rational, reasonable people despite their grief.
05:34And I can't imagine what I would be like in this moment of heartbreak.
05:37And all they asked is that we look very seriously at the root causes, that we look very seriously at ways to prevent crazy people who are about to shoot up a school from getting access to firearms.
05:48These are things that a lot of us have talked about for a very long time.
05:52These parents are grieving, but they certainly want us to look at everything that we can possibly do so the next family doesn't have to deal with this.
06:00On the Venezuela vessel, you know, vessel strike, what legal authority were you guys working under?
06:07And will there be an after report on the strike?
06:09Well, I'm sure they're going to be an after report.
06:11I mean, the legal authority, and I want to talk about these kids, is that there are people who are bringing literal terrorists,
06:17who are bringing deadly drugs into our country.
06:19And the President of the United States ran on a promise of stopping this poison from coming into our country.
06:24Another question?
06:25Did you speak to Weston today?
06:27Weston, the young man that had something in his neck, dropping over in the bullet?
06:31Yeah, Usha and I spoke to him.
06:33He had just gotten out of surgery, so we weren't able to see Weston, but we did talk to him on the phone.
06:37Just a little boy, thank God, full of life, happy, recovering well.
06:41And, you know, I told him, I guess he has a 15-year-old older brother.
06:45I said, you can tell the Vice President from the Vice President of the United States that your older brother has to be nice to you for at least the next week.
06:51Weston was very excited to hear that, but just a really beautiful family, and I'm glad that he's doing well.
06:57Is there more you can share with us about, the President said he'd be sending in the National Guard to Chicago.
07:01Do you know how many members of the National Guard or when exactly that's going to happen?
07:05I'll let the President speak to that.
07:06I mean, look, there are no immediate plans, but the President has said he has the legal authority to protect American citizens,
07:12whether that's in Chicago or in Washington, D.C.
07:14Obviously, as the President has said, we want the governor to be a partner here.
07:17We would love it, Democrat or Republican, if we had governors who were willing to actually be partners in cutting down crime in our country.
07:23Unfortunately, it looks like that's not what we have in J.B. Pritzker.
07:26But out of respect for the families that I visited today, we'll sort of leave it there on the national conversation.
07:31Again, I'll just say one final thing.
07:34I'm going to repeat it.
07:35Hug your kids.
07:36There are two families who are heartbroken and devastated.
07:40There are no words that we have that are possibly going to make them feel better.
07:44But what we can is honor them by being the best moms and dads that we can be.
07:48So if you're an American who has that opportunity, hug them tight.
07:51God bless you guys.
07:52Can we get Mrs. Vance's reaction really quick?
07:55See you guys.
07:56Bye.
07:57Bye.
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