Steve Scalise on Fox News: 'For people to think that violence is an answer to a political disagreement is wrong'

MACCALLUM: So you have been a registered Republican since you were 18 years old.

What was your first reaction when you learned that James Hodgkinson shot you because you're a Republican?

SCALISE: You know, I don't think that anybody has a rationale or justification for carrying out that kind of attack. I mean he came out just really with an intention on murdering as many Republicans as he could that day.

And I don't know what his motivation is and, you know, whether mental illness was involved or not. I can't even answer that.

But I really don't focus on that. I mean I had to focus on getting better and I'm a person who typically doesn't dwell on the past and on negative things that happen, because, you know, frankly, if you're dwelling on that, you're not focusing on the things that you can get done.

And I think it's an honor to be a Member of Congress.

And we've got real challenges, clearly, but I want to do something about it. And now I have that ability again. And that's where I want to focus my energy.

MACCALLUM: Well, Pete Williams, He said he -- he had a list of Republicans.

What do you think about that?

SCALISE: You know, nobody in a right frame of mind should think like that. And, look, we have a divided nation on a lot of big, important issues. But when you fight over these issues, you know, that's one of the things that's great about our country.

I mean our country started with big divisions and, in many cases, two-party systems where people were on very different sides. But you never make that personal. There's never a rationale for making those disagreements personal.

And so, you know, when I look at that, I say, you know, nobody has a justification to take their political differences and try to carry out some kind of illegal act or harmful act based on that.

MACCALLUM: So obviously, you saw what happened in Las Vegas. And you're part of a club, an unfortunate club of people who know what it's like to be shot at.

What's your reaction when you see this heinous, horrific massacre that another crazed gunman, a 64-year-old man from five football fields away, with 23 guns, 19, I think, in the room, raining down on innocent people?

SCALISE: It just -- you know, it just touches your heart. The first thing I think of is to pray for those people that are still fighting for their lives in the hospitals in Las Vegas. And you can imagine what, you know, hundreds of people that were shot, with dozens that have already died, there's still some people fighting for their lives and we ought to pray for them.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

SCALISE: We ought to pray for the people who lost their lives. And what their families are going through. But, also for the people who are still in the hospital. You know, what is called for -- because I saw it personally -- is you see a big drain on the blood supply.

MACCALLUM: Right.

SCALISE: And so, you know, luckily, there are a lot of people showing up at the blood banks in Las Vegas. But people ask me, what can I do about it?

People all around the country can go to their local blood bank and there's a need there. And I'm somebody who experienced that personally, that luckily, the blood supply was there so that I could really be alive today.

MACCALLUM: Inevitably, questions about the Second Amendment are raised by what happened in Las Vegas. It happened almost immediately.

Have you, your experience of your own and what you saw in Las Vegas, has it changed how you feel about any of that?

SCALISE: I think it's fortified it because, first of all, you've got to recognize that, you know, when there is a tragedy like this, the first thing we should be thinking about is praying for the people who were injured and doing whatever we can to help them, to help law enforcement.

We shouldn't first be thinking of promoting our political agenda. And I think we see too much of that, where people say OK, now you have to have gun control.

Well, first of all, look at some of those bills. Those bills wouldn't have done anything to stop this. I mean the gunmen actually cleared background checks.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

SCALISE: So to promote some kind of gun control, I think, is the wrong way to approach this.

And frankly, what I experienced was when there was a shooter, we had -- luckily, we had Capitol Police with their own guns. Every single day in America, regular citizens that just have a passionate belief in the Second Amendment, that have their own guns, use guns every single day to protect themselves against criminals.

And those stories never get told or hardly ever get told, but that's a different side of the story that I think is important. And people use guns way more to defend themselves from criminals...

MACCALLUM: Yes.

SCALISE: -- than criminals using guns to hurt people.

MACCALLUM: I understand what you're saying. But then there's the argument that gun manufacturers are advertising in their catalogs, you know, semi-automatic guns. Everybody knows that those can be converted. We now know more about it than we used to, some of us after what happened in Las Vegas. You can go online. You can turn that into an automatic weapon, which is illegal in this country.

So I think a lot of people look at that and say there must be, perhaps, something, some effort that can be made so that these kinds of weapons can't fall into the hands of a madman, a madman like the one who attacked you and your fellow congressman.

SCALISE: Right.

MACCALLUM: And a madman like the one who attacked those innocent people in Las Vegas.

SCALISE: One thing we've seen over the years is that a lot of these mass shootings involve people with mental health issues.

I can't speak to whether or not the Las Vegas shooter had mental health issues, but a lot of these gunmen do.

We actually addressed this in Congress just a few months ago. We passed a bill called The Twenty-First Century Cures Act, that had a major reform of our mental health system. We actually created a new position in DHH, the assistant secretary of mental health.

That person -- she just got installed two months ago.

So this office is very new. We put money in place to focus on mental health. That's really where the biggest problem has been. And Congress actually took action in a very bipartisan way to address that.

And we need to make sure that that office gets implemented the right way, because that really can solve and, I think, stop some of these future mass shootings by addressing the real mental health problems in this country that drive people to do things like this.

MACCALLUM: So you're as strong on the Second Amendment as ever?

SCALISE: Absolutely.

MACCALLUM: You talked about the division that we see in this country. And we all feel that. You know, you have friends that it's hard to have conversations with about politics today. And a lot of people think that that trickles down from the president.

There was a woman who -- and a lawyer, was a lawyer -- she got fired -- at CBS. And after Las Vegas, she said she had no sympathy for the country music fans because they were most likely gun-toting Republicans.

SCALISE: I think that's disgraceful. I'm glad she was fired, because there's no place in our society for that kind of hate. I mean that is hate.

And no matter which side of the political spectrum you're on, you know, when I tell people, I mean I'm a conservative. I have strong beliefs that go back to when Ronald Reagan inspired me to be a Republican.

Fight passionately for the things you believe in in the ways that our country allows under the Constitution. I mean we're the best example in the world of a democracy where people actually get to go out and debate freely. Freedom of speech, the ability to fight for your issues at the ballot box or on the House floor during a vote.

But that's the way it should be settled. For people to think that violence is an answer to a political disagreement is wrong.

MACCALLUM: A lot of people, a lot of Republicans, in particular, are really frustrated with this Congress. And you may have been frustrated from your hospital bed, at times.

They want to see health care passed. They want to see tax reform. They were promised that if they elected a Republican president, and the sweep that they saw on the Hill was going to mean huge changes.

Having gone through your experience and learned how short life can be, does it give you -- has it changed you at all in terms of your message to your colleagues?

SCALISE: Well, I'm probably an impatient person in general in terms of what I want to get done and it can't get done quick enough. But this process in Washington works very slow. And that's what frustrates all of us.

But one of the things -- I mean you talked about tax reform, we have to deliver on tax reform. And I really do think we can get that done by the end of this year.

You want to talk about something that will actually create jobs again and rebuild our middle class?

This tax reform bill that we're working on will do that quickly and you can see all of the money that's on the sidelines, all the jobs that went overseas, that can easily come back if we make our country competitive again.

We're going to get that done.

MACCALLUM: So you've already got Freedom Caucus folks saying that they want this to be deficit-neutral. They don't want to add to the deficit. You've got folks on the other end of the spectrum saying that they want to see bigger tax cuts.

You're going to have a tough time pulling this together.

SCALISE: That's what makes my job so fun. As the majority whip, you work with all the coalitions and you pull them together and you find a way to hit that sweet spot on a bill that accomplishments what we want to do. And that is to lower taxes for families and rebuild the middle class and create jobs while also bringing together the various factions within our Republican Conference to get the votes to pass the bill.

That's what we're working on right now and I mean I'm so glad to be back here at this time because I know how important it is that we get this done.

And if we get this done, I do think it gives us more momentum to go into next year, which is still all in the same Congress...

MACCALLUM: Right.

SCALISE: -- and then go back at health care and still -- those problems are going to get worse. ObamaCare is only going to get worse. Let's then figure out a way to get done what we started this year. We still have time to achieve even more big things.

But if it starts with tax reform...

MACCALLUM: Yes?

SCALISE: -- I think that's a big win in and of itself and creates the momentum to get other big things done.

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