'He Was A Child Of The Same Creator That Created Me': Al Green Decries Assassination Of Charlie Kirk

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In House floor remarks, Rep. Al Green (D-TX) mourned the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Transcript

00:00Mr. Speaker, still I rise. I rise, Mr. Speaker, as a liberated Democrat. I rise, Mr. Speaker, unbought, unbossed, unafraid.

00:18I rise, Mr. Speaker, as the only member of the House of Representatives to be removed from a joint session of Congress.

00:28And thereafter to be censured. I have been censured, Mr. Speaker, but I have not been silenced.

00:43Censured, but not silenced.

00:46Mr. Speaker, I rise today in agreement with the President.

00:52This is, indeed, a dark day.

00:58Yesterday was a dark day.

01:01Dark days because of lives that have been lost.

01:04First, this day, the USA Today has published an article styled 24 years after 9-11 alliances fractured,

01:22referring to what happened on 9-11, the lives that were lost to terrorism.

01:29And then, Mr. Speaker, there's another article that I would call to your attention in the Washington Times.

01:38It is styled, Growing Left-Wing Violence, Blame for Deadly Shooting.

01:44Mr. Speaker, I wish to address violence.

01:52I wish to address violence, and I wish to start by indicating that on yesterday, I published a tweet.

02:01And this tweet, Mr. Speaker, indicated, in essence, that this is the time for all persons of goodwill to take a stand against violence.

02:15And that persons should do this because Dr. King was right, and his words are right today.

02:25We must all learn to live together as brothers, he said, I would add, and sisters.

02:32We must all learn to live together as brothers and sisters, or we will perish together as fools.

02:39I did not know, Mr. Kirk, I don't believe I've ever met him.

02:48I meet a lot of people, so I may have, but I don't believe that I have.

02:52But here's what I know about him.

02:55He was a human being.

02:59He was a child of the same creator that created me.

03:04He had every right to express his views.

03:07He had every right to differ with me as much as he wanted to and anybody else.

03:14He had every right to be where he was and to speak on the issues of importance to him in ways that I might not agree with.

03:26But he had a right to do this.

03:29He had a right to life.

03:31He had a right to say these things in venues across the length and breadth of this country, and I would say across the globe.

03:42These were his rights.

03:45He had the right to be where he was and to do what he was doing.

03:51I don't know him as a person who has said things that I would always agree with.

04:03But I want his wife and his children to know that I'm saddened by his demise.

04:10I'm saddened by the fact that he was assassinated.

04:12I'm saddened by it.

04:15It is painful.

04:17I regret that it happened, and if I could have prevented it, I would have.

04:23I don't believe that we should have a country that somehow would have people lose their lives, be assassinated,

04:32and then people gloat and celebrate an assassination.

04:39So I ask today, what did Mr. Kirk and the victims of 9-11 and the persons who have died in churches while praying,

04:53persons who were killed as they were praying in various religious institutions,

04:58children who have been murdered in schools, what do they all have in common?

05:07The one thing that they all have in common, and there may be others, is that they were innocent people.

05:15Innocent people.

05:16Innocent people going about their business.

05:19None of them were breaking the law.

05:21So this is bigger than any one of us or any group of us.

05:27It's bigger than any person's religiosity.

05:32It's bigger than where you happen to be at a given time.

05:38This is about the right to life and the right to speak freely.

05:43It's about what the Constitution affords all of us in this country.

05:48And about the necessity for every one of us to protect these constitutional rights.

05:52This is about people who have been born and fortunate enough to have been born in the United States of America

06:06or people who have come to the United States of America.

06:09People who just happen to be passing through.

06:13It's about the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and especially life,

06:22because without life you cannot have the liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

06:27All of these people have in common the fact that they were innocent and the fact that they have lost their lives,

06:36some to terrorism, persons who came to this country to impose and inflict terrorism upon people,

06:45and some from terrorists within the country, some from people who were just crazed,

06:52some from people who were persons that should not have had the opportunity to have the type of weaponry that they had.

07:01But they were all persons who were innocent, all persons who had this right to life that I stand for.

07:12And so today, I believe it appropriate that I first say a prayer.

07:21And then after the prayer, I'd like to make some comments about current circumstances.

07:29I don't ask everyone to pray with me.

07:34You pray with me if you desire.

07:35If you choose to do other things, then do those other things.

07:39But I pray this prayer for my country.

07:43Most gracious creator, we know you by many names.

07:50But we also know that by any name, you are the creator of all that was, is, and ever shall be.

07:56By any name, you created air, the breath of life.

08:07By any name, you created water, the elixir of life.

08:12By any name, you created the star that we call sun, the light and warmth of life.

08:22By any name, you created the terra firma that we call earth, the foundation and the home of life.

08:29And by any name, I beg that you would understand and pray that you would give me the courage

08:40to not only speak truth to power, to speak it in a righteous way,

08:49to have the courage to do all that I can to protect all of your creation.

08:54So I ask you to give me the strength as I speak today

08:59to talk about the circumstances

09:03that have...

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