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Rep. Steve Scalise: Congressman John Lewis was a legend, honored to serve with him

2020-07-18 | 🔗
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise reacts to the passing of Congressman John Lewis on ‘Fox and Friends.’
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Colleagues, in the incredible difficult time we want to bring in now, the House minority whip were very pleased to have Congressman Steve Scalise, and I served together in Congress and we served more importantly today with Congressman John Lewis. You know I never wanted to speak after John Lewis, because his was a force when he spoke and he didnt speak often, but when he did, it was a force, congressman, Scalise, yeah, Jason, what a loss and what a giant when John Lewis would get up to speak. He wasnt somebody who would always go speak, but when he did, everybody would stop just because you knew the magnitude of his voice and the legacy that he carried along with his voice, the things that he did and the non violent way to seek out justice and racial equality, and he lived by those words. He was somebody honored to serve with, as you served with him as well, and at the time you served with him, you knew you
were serving amongst someone who was a legend. Who was a giant who you would tell your kids and grandkids about Griff Congressman. He was certainly a legend and you know his legacy, one of non violence and he never broke from that. You know it was an interesting, great obituary that Jonathan did there because it talked about how he always mate it about his cause. His struggle not about himself and im wondering whether his legacy will live also with the younger members of Congress as they come in and look for ways to make their mark on history. I think it will. I was talking to my colleagues last night and you know, Cedric is from that next generation, and just we all looked up to John Lewis and John- would pass on his history of what he not only learned, but the pioneer experience. He really helped pave the way, along
with Martin Luther King Jr for the civil rights movement, and it was his blood, his sweat that helped earn it. He would bring members of Congress to Selma Alabama to go across the Edmond Pettis Bridge and he invited me- and it was one of migrate honors to be able to walk arm in arm across this bridge, and he talked about that day bloody Sunday and he would point to the buildings and he said thats, where we met- and here is where you know our Snc c, the student non violent coordinating committee would have their meetings and, of course, you approach the bridge and you could just feel the sense of could just feel the sense of what you were about to encounter and what John Lewis went through that day, where he was just brutally beaten and yet still marched on and inspired a nation to speak, more justice and equality and really led to the passing of the Civil Rights ACT. Jedediah yeah the loss of an incredible civil rights figure. His legacy will be
remembered, never to be forgotten and we mourn his loss today. Congressman another story that weve been talking about. A lot is with respect to the coronavirus and the impact that it has had on our young kids around the country and whether or not they can be in school when to return to school, how to return to school, whats safe and what that looks like well, Joe Biden has released a school reopening roadmap lets, take a look at what that includes, and then well talk about it: thirty dollars billion for Ppe, sanitation products, custodial services, alterations to ventilation, systems and classroom structure, four dollars billion for upgrading technologies, and here is Joe Biden on reopening schools on Twitter. Everyone wants our schools to be open. The question is how to make it safe, how to make it stick forcing education students back into the classroom in areas where the infection rate is going up or remaining very high, is just plain dangerous Jedediah. This seems to me like
an incredibly smart decision for the Biden campaign to come out and present a plan. Is there a missed opportunity here by the Trump Adminitration? Well, President Trump has been leading the way to reopen schools. In fact, I was with Vice President Pence, Tuesday in Baton Rouge, when we had a round establish meeting with the vice presidents. Whole coronavirus task force, including Dr Birx, as well as the heads of the Lsu system and the southern university system, talking about how to reopen schools safely and, of course, Lsu and Southern all of our higher ed institutions will be reopening with students in the classroom next month. Ourk 12 systems are all working to do the exact same thing. I wish Joe Biden be more focused on how to do it, not whether or not to do it, because one of the things youve got to look at the American Academy of Pediatrics just came out with strong guidelines of how to reopen safely, but in that they talk about the damage that was done to students by not being
able to be in school those last few months of the last school year and what damage it would do to students not going back to schools safely again. Theres, no trade off of safety. Its just lets establish these protocols and then lets go get it done. We put a man on a moon, we can absolutely reopen our schools and we owe it to those kids, as over fifty million kids counting on us not to come up with excuses. Why not to do it? The virus is out there, but we also know a lot of good things about how to do it safely and again. When people like Dr Birx say yes, you can do it, you have to do it. We need to go and focus all of our energies on getting our schools open for our kids, so that theyre not denied that opportunity. Griff thats right congressman, the kids are counting on it and so are the parents. I have two teenage daughters who are ready to send these kids back to school house. Minority whip, Steve.
Transcript generated on 2020-07-21.