6/14/2017--A Day of Infamy in America

Floor Speech

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Mr. PALMER. Thank you, Brad, for giving us this opportunity to reflect on the events of June 14, 2017. Regardless of what we do the rest of our lives, that day will bind us together, those who were there that day.

The interesting thing is, the day before, I saw the man who attacked us. He was sitting in the bleachers behind the backstop looking, in my opinion, very distressed. I thought about going over and talking with him, but we were trying to get to practice and get practice started, so I didn't see him again until later.

As Congressman Duncan related, I was actually over at second base with Scalise when Duncan and Ron DeSantis left. Trent Kelly was already over at third base, so I moved over to shortstop.

Our practices are a lot of banter back and forth at each other. It is a lot of fun, a lot of ragging each other. All that was going on, and then I heard a sharp crack. I immediately recognized it as a gunshot.

I yelled at Trent Kelly that it was a gunshot, and Trent said: ``I know.''

The bullet had whizzed by him. By the providence of God and by an act of God, that bullet had struck a link in the chain link fence.

The shooter, after he had asked Duncan if we were Republicans or Democrats, walked over to his van. He had been living in his van for about 3 months and parked in the parking lot of the YMCA across the street from the field. They were doing some construction. There were some little containers there that blocked our view of anyone approaching from that side. He came up on the outfield end of the third-base dugout and, maybe about 4 feet, 5 feet from the fence, fired that first shot.

There was a few seconds of hesitation before anything else happened. It was almost like it was just a single shot. When I yelled out at Trent, Trent turned around and saw him, and he yelled out: ``He's got a gun. Get off the field.''

Everyone was kind of stunned. Things just kind of froze for a moment until the gunfire erupted. Thank God the third-base gate was closed, but the only open gate was on the first-base side, and so we were all running in that direction. I remember seeing General Jack Bergman lying flat on the ground up by home plate along with Mike Bishop from Michigan, others scrambling to get into the dugout.

I saw Scalise get hit. I knew he was hit low. I didn't know where, but I knew he was hit low because of the way he fell. As I was running across the infield trying to get off the field, I had two thoughts that went through my mind. One was: If today is the day, I am ready. Then I thought: I wonder what it will feel like.

As I got off the field, I took cover behind a big oak tree that was really between where the little building where Barry Loudermilk and the other guys had taken shelter and that concrete block building where the shooter had taken a position.

I saw Crystal Griner on the ground. From the blood on her leg, I thought she was shot in the leg. It turned out she was shot through the ankle. She was trying to pull herself up toward the front wheel well of the SUV to, I think, try to get in a position to return fire.

Behind the oak tree was Trent Kelly and John Moolenaar from Michigan. I don't know who said it, but someone said we needed to pull back to a concrete block building behind us, where the concession stands were and where the restrooms were. When I pulled back, got back there, I took a position beside Brad Wenstrup.

Brad and I were at that corner, and Scalise had dragged himself with his hands and arms out of the infield out in the outfield. When he started doing that, when I was still by the oak trees, he kept raising up trying to look. I think he was trying to see where he was shot.

I started yelling at him to get down, get down, because bullets were flying everywhere. When he got out in the outfield, he just lay quietly, and Brad would yell out at him: ``Raise your hand,'' for a show of life. Steve would raise his hand. We were praying that this would end so that we could get to Steve in time to give aid.

Thankfully, someone yelled out, ``He's down. He's down.'' There were about--what, Brad?--five or six of us who got out there.

When I saw where he was shot, I knew he was in trouble. I knew there would be bone fragments. I knew there would be lead fragments. I also knew that I had no clue what to do other than put pressure on the wound.

Barry Loudermilk brought the first aid kit out and gave it to me, and I opened it up and was providing Brad with whatever materials that we could find in the bag. Brad fashioned a lower-body tourniquet by getting Scalise's baseball belt off, and Brian Kelly took his shirt off and was able to make that tourniquet.

When the EMT showed up, they actually had one. It was my understanding that Brad was the only one who knew how to put it on expertly, and he got it on. That is, in my opinion, what saved Steve's life.

These are individual actions that I think were guided by the hand of God because there is not another explanation for why 136 rounds were fired at people congregated like we were and five people were hit, five victims, but none of them died. The only person who died that day was the shooter.

The other thing that struck me was the Members' reaction. There was nobody screaming, nobody panicked. Now, you hear a lot of times what people talk about in combat or in these types of situations--police officers talk about this--that time slows down. It just seemed like everything was so focused. As soon as the shooter was down, our Members sprang into action, helping each other.

I was so proud of how our guys responded and didn't panic because it was certainly a situation where I think most people would have panicked.

Congressman Loudermilk mentioned David Bailey being wounded. When Bailey came out to be by the side of Steve Scalise, I offered to try to tend to his wound, and he refused treatment. He would not leave the side of Steve Scalise.

The epilogue, I guess, of this is how it has affected us, and I think it has made our bond even stronger. As I said at the very beginning, we are bound together for life. It is a wonderful relationship that we have with each other as Members of Congress, as members of the Republican baseball team, but this is an event that defines us in many respects.

I will never forget it, but the epilogue is the disappointing part of the story. There is no doubt in my mind this was an act of political violence. It was clearly an attempt, a planned attempt, to kill Republican Members of Congress.

We had a briefing by the FBI. When Steve Scalise had gotten out of rehab--that was several months after the shooting--they gathered us in a room to have the FBI give us the report, and they told us that this was an act of an individual attempting to commit suicide by police.

I want you to remember that both the Capitol Police officers were shot. When the Alexandria police showed up and fired on him initially, he returned fire on them. If this was his intention to commit suicide by cop, he wouldn't have been firing on them. He came there to kill Republicans.

It was one of the most shameful days, in my opinion, for the FBI to come before us, with Steve Scalise sitting in a scooter because he was still not able to walk, sitting right in front of him to read a report to us that wanted to describe this, categorize this, as an attempted suicide.

I am so grateful to Brad Wenstrup, who has refused to accept that and has continued to pursue the truth and to get the FBI to classify this as what it was. The truth needs to be told, but there is also more to the story.

There is another part of this story, too. When the ambulance arrived to take Scalise to George Washington Hospital, there was so much traffic that it became evident that because, as Brad pointed out, Steve's blood pressure was basically zero, he had minutes, not hours.

It was evident they were not going to get there. A helicopter flew over. I believe it was a Department of the Interior helicopter. They radioed the helicopter to land at the baseball field, and it did. They took Steve out of the ambulance and put him in the helicopter. The only place that had a pad for the helicopter to land was MedStar Hospital.

They took him there, and it just so happened--again, I believe the providence of God--one of the top trauma surgeons in the country was on call. Still, for 2 days, we didn't know if Steve was going to make it.

When he did his rehab--Steve is a huge LSU fan--some of us even went to great lengths to encourage him by putting on an LSU cap. As someone who, in my case, played football at Alabama, that was a one-time event. I told Steve I would never do that again, but I knew how much LSU football meant to him.

It happened that that fall, LSU was playing at the University of Alabama, so I called the University and asked them to invite Steve Scalise to be our guest at that game because Steve is the kind of guy who you give him an objective, and he will achieve it.

I had the honor of hand-delivering a letter of invitation from Coach Nick Saban to Steve in the hospital. Coach Saban and Steve knew each other from the time when Saban was the head coach at LSU.

I sat there as he ripped open the envelope and read the letter, and Steve Scalise was at the University of Alabama for the LSU-Alabama football game. We beat them, which we usually do.

It was one of the great moments for me to go through this tragic event, see this guy fight for his life, achieve an objective, come back on this floor, stand at this microphone, and give one of the greatest speeches I have ever heard on the floor of the House of Representatives.

I think we all understand what happened that day. We understand the condition of our country right now, the anger, the division, that could potentially tear us apart. I don't think we need to be reminded of the responsibility we have in conducting the affairs of the governance of this country in a way that not only allows us to continue to function as a nation, but restores respect for the Chamber, restores respect for the separation of powers, restores respect for our ability to disagree but still live together.

Tomorrow, as we said, is the 7-year anniversary of that event. I know, as my colleagues have all said, it is a day we will never forget, but I hope, as tragic as that day was, that it will serve as a reminder to every Member of this body, Democrat and Republican, that we have a responsibility in how we conduct our business and how we present our arguments and that we dedicate ourselves to trying to bring unity back to a country that right now is just stricken with anger and malice that, if we don't deal with it properly, is going to do enormous harm to our ability to live together, to govern together, and to give those who follow us an opportunity to live in what is the greatest country in the history of the world.

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