>> security detection, no protection. >> you can have this or you can have that. >> this is where it's at. >> media com supports c-span as a public service, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> u.s. minnesota senators amy klobuchar and tina smith came to the senate floor to reflect on the lives of minnesota state lawmaker melissa hort man and her husband mark hortman who were shot and killed over the weekend. minnesota state senator john hauf man and his wife were also shot but survived. >> mr. president, i rise today with my colleague from minnesota, senator smith, to honor two minnesotaens who were friends of ours who were taken

from us this weekend in a shocking act of political violence. representative melissa hortman and her husband mark hortman. i'm also continuing to pray for john hoffman and his wife who survived a brutal assassination attempt. john took nine bullets and yvette took 8 and they're continuing to recover in the hospital. i've been in touch with yvette and she's grateful for the outpouring of support from all over the country for their family. and i want to extend my enormous gratitude to the hundreds and hundreds of local, state and federal law enforcement who worked tirelessly over the course of a 43 hour man hunt to apprehend the suspect. they ran toward the danger, they risked their lives.

the local officers from brooklyn park, minnesota also stopped further assassinations, along with other officers, in the moment by going over to check on legislators after learning about what happened at senator hoffman's house. we now know the a sas sin went to two other legislator's homes in between the two shootings that night and in one case sped off after being spotted by the police. while it was too late to save melissa and mark, the officer's decision to check on their house allowed them to spot the assassin, separate him from his vehicle and begin the man hunt. but right now, we want to focus on who melissa and mark were as people. this were great neighbors, wonderful friends and great parents to their beloved children, so -- sophie and

collin. melissa is someone who i wish the whole senate and the whole nation knew. she's the epitome of what you'd want in a public servant. she went into it for all the right reasons. she grew up in spring lake park and andover, minnesota. working at her parent's used auto part company over the summers. after leaving for college, she came back to minnesota for law school and began her career in our state. she was always devoted to her community. she was a girl scout leader and taught sunday school at her local catholic church. she was always one of the first to raise her hand when someone needed a volunteer for just about anything, including training service dogs for veterans. one of them was just too friendly for service, so their family adopted him and loved him very much. sadly, he was shot that night and the two children had to make

the decision to put him down this weekend. how they loved that dog. melissa and i first ran for public office around the same time, both with little kids. me for county attorney's office, her for the state legislature. that's how i got to know her. i was the county attorney, she was running for legislature. she was elected in 2004 and served in the minnesota house for 20 years. and she left a lasting impact. as a minority leader, she guided her caucus with conviction and a sense of humor. and she wasn't afraid to call out the all male card game taking place during debates. when her colleagues chose to make her the speaker, her first order of business was getting rid of the speaker's mute button. as she said at the time "i have a gavel and a gavel is good

enough for me." melissa was one of the most consequential speakers in the history of our state. she knew no limits in terms of trying to get people together, trying to get things done. when a minnesota voter casts a ballot without facing unfair discrimination, that's melissa. when a woman is able to access reproductive care in our state, that's melissa. and when our state achieves 100% clean energy by 2040, that will be because of melissa. when we had a -- it was melissa who forged a power sharing agreement and a budget with her

republican counterpart. she led with integrity and with courage. she, like her husband mark, who you see here, who was also accomplished in business and a kind, kind person. they were compassionate and they were smart. and they were just nice to everyone and i can't believe they are gone. here they are with their kids. the polarization in our country, the divisions, the online hate needs to stop. violence has absolutely no place in our democracy, we need to come together and bring down the rhetoric. we must be united in the face of this attack. it was simply un-american. that's why the entire minnesota delegation, democrats and republicans, including smart smith, including congressman

emer came together over the weekend to call this violence out. we spoke with one voice to condemn it. and in our state, melissa's colleagues on both sides of the aisle have done the same. we have seen this too many times. there are many things we can do as a body to fix this problem. i'm sure in the days to come, we'd offer legislation on security and all kinds of things. but we don't need to pass a law for people to turn down the rhetoric, to treat each other with decency and respect, to act a little more like melissa and mark. mr. president, melissa and mark hortman were the best of us. i'm shattered to have lost them. but eternally grateful to have known them. i want to end by sharing a message from their beloved kids, sophie and collin. they wrote this just last night.

this tragedy must become a moment for us to come together. hold your loved ones also closer, love your neighbors, treat each other with kindness and respect. the best way to honor our parent's memory, they said, is to do something. whether big or small. to make our community just a little better for someone else. i urge my colleagues to hear that message and i'm honored to be here with my wonderful colleague senator smith. thank you and i yield the floor. >> senator from minnesota? >> thank you, mr. president. and many thanks to my colleague senator klobuchar for her heartfelt words. i rise today because my friend melissa hortman, incredible person and strong leader, was

shot and killed saturday morning along with her husband mark in a tragic politically motivated attack. senator john hoffman and his wife yvette were also shot a total of 17 times. and yvette incredibly and selflessly used her own body to shield their daughter from the attacker. i thank god that they're expected to recover. i am filled with gratitude for the state and local and federal law enforcement that marshalled all of their resources to keep minnesota safe and to capture this shooter late on sunday evening. this was an unspeakable act of political violence and an attack on our democracy as well as a personal tragedy. there will be a time and a place to discuss the evilness of her assassination, the forces that

drove her assassination to violence and how we as leaders must rise to this moment and speak with one voice -- but today i want my colleagues in america and everybody back home in minnesota to know the kind of person and leader that melissa was. and i want to think especially of collin and sophie who have lost their parents, their mom and dad, and understand that they will not be forgotten by me or senator klobuchar or many, many thousands of people. i hope that everyone will be able to understand a little bit more keenly the depth of our grief, the human cost to the loss of melissa and mark's family and their friends and their community in minnesota and to our nation. mr. president, i don't know about you, but i need a little inspiration right now. and melissa was inspirational. the first thing you need to know is she was a middle class girl from the north metro of the twin

cities. she was funny, straightforward and kind. she was smart and driven and determined and she did well because she worked hard at everything that she did. from her first job making burritos to her last job leading her caucus through a deeply divided legislative session. nothing was handed to her and she earned it through her work. and that is the inspiration of the american dream. the second thing that i want you to know about melissa is she believed and acted on one of our most american values, the conviction that we all have a responsibility to one another. we have a responsibility to contribute to our communities and we have this unshakable belief that our country is great because we feel that connection and obligation to one another. service to and respect for others was the guiding principle in melissa's life. over the last few days, there have been so many beautiful tributes written to melissa's life and work.

i see a common thread in all of these remembrances that even in the rough business of politics, she was someone who never lost focus on our shared humanity, those shared values and the shared goal we should all have in public service which is improving life for americans. and her gift for focusing on that shared humanity led her to not only earn the loyalty of the members of her caucus but trust and respect of republicans on the other side of the aisle. current house speaker republican lisa recently recalled how melissa reached out to her stt start of lisa's leadership. and how she came to view melissa as a mentor. many disagreements on policy, but melissa was a mentor to her because she brought such clarity and honesty and compassion to their working relationship.

former senate majority leader republican paul reflected on his years of working closely with melissa. he noted that they built a deep trust with one another because of her honesty, because of her even keeled temperament. he remembered their moments of human connection after they shared a hug after the passage of a landmark public safety bill and in the aftermath of the murder of george floyd. that hug was in recognition of how they had worked so hard coming from different places in such a difficult moment for minnesota. melissa always approached her work by leading with compassion and respect for our shared humanity and of course she was unafraid to demand that respect in return. both for herself and for others. and she was fearless. one of the most famous anecdotes of her speakership, amy was referring to this. one night, it was a long night.

the debate was going on and on but there were members of the house making important speeches, making personal speeches about the impact of a bill that would have increased criminal penalties in certain protests. meanwhile, a group of male legislators in the back room were playing cards. and melissa called them out on it. these legislators unaccustomed with being confronted with their rude behavior expressed their indignation and melissa's response was pretty simple. she said you know, i am really tired of watching women, especially women of color, be ignored. so she said i'm not sorry. mr. president, i have to tell you that sorry, not sorry became a little bit of a rallying cry around the minnesota state capitol after that and something that we all remembered melissa for. she lived her values and she knew how to stand up for others

and insisted that we all treat one another with dignity and respect as we all undertake the serious work she was a formittable legislator. her tenure of service began long before her election to the minnesota legislator. she was an intern for al gore and john kerry. she worked as a clerk in our state's court system. she first rose to prominence winning a housing discrimination case as a legal aid attorney that she won for her client, which at the time was the largest civil award in minnesota history for housing discrimination. and he was 27 years old. she volunteered on campaigns, ran for office twice, losing before she won.

she was tenacious. and once elected, her talent was immediately obvious. by her second term, she was already mounting and combroeing in leadership. . she had a remarkable record as a negotiator, an honest broker. someone who's true to her principles, even when she had to make tough choices. melissa's leadership during the 2023 legislative session of the minnesota legislature was nothing short of historic. much has been written about the great accomplishments of this legislative session, but i think an underappreciated part of this is this remarkable session didn't just happen in one short period, it happened because of years and years and years of work and melissa was a part of that work from the very beginning. the success of that legislature and that legislative session came because of her ability to see an opportunity and to meet

the moment and to meet it with courage. she always believed that you can make a difference for people if you worked at it and she did. because of her leadership, more than 13.5 million more minnesota students get a healthy and free breakfast and lunch in 2024. minnesota's on track to eliminate all lead water service lines. and minnesota is a state we're very proud of with the second highest voter turn out in the 2024 presidential election and the highest youth voter turnout by far. and starting next year, mr. president, working minnesotans will have access to paid leave thanks to melissa. millions of minnesotans are

better off because of the work she did. her record of accomplishment is so extensive it's hard to capture it all in just a few short minutes. and so it is so bitter to realize that she was only 55. she had so many more contributions to make. as melissa would say, don't get carried away. i'm just doing my work. i was gonna work as hard as i could. so it is bitter for us that her life was taken in this way. and it will be up to us to carry on these sites. and i will miss her leadership and her friendship as our state navigates these uncertain times. mr. president, i look around this senate chamber and i see legislators, who like melissa, understand that the job of a legislature and a legislator is to help fix things, not just talk about fixing things. to lift up people who need help, to build opportunity and use the power of our connections to one

another to build a better, stronger, more fair community. and i hope my colleagues will take heart and inspiration from melissa's example and rededicate ourselves to what it means to be a legislator, working across lines of difference to solve problems for the people who sent us here. i want to just also close with a suggestion from melissa and mark's beloved children sophie and collin to all of us in minnesota just yesterday. and it's in the spirit of melissa's directness and down to earthness. she said "if you would like to honor the memory of mark and melissa, please consider the following. plant a tree. visit a local park and make use of the amenities, especially a bike trail. pet a dog. a golden retriever is ideal, but any will do. tell your loved ones a cheesy dad joke and laugh about it.

bake something, bread for mark or a cake for melissa and share it with someone. try new hobbies and enjoy learning something. stand up for what you believe in, especially if that thing is justice and peace. may the memory of melissa and mark be a blessing to all who knew and loved them and may john and yvette have a speedy recovery and may we all find a way to recover and be better after these terrible attacks. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. >> c-span's washington journal, a live forum inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics and public policy. from washington dc to -- coming up wednesday morning, we'll talk about the future of iran's nuclear program on members of

congress receiving security briefings after the minnesota lawmaker shootings. and the migration policy institute on the impact of the trump administration's ice work place raids and how immigrant worker's employment eligibility is verified. c-span's washington journal, join the conversation live on wednesday morning on c-span, c-span now or online at c-span.org. >> on wednesday, the senate judiciary committee meets to discuss president biden's fitness in office during the last of his term. watch that on c-span or online at c-span.org. >> democracy is always an unfinished creation. >> democracy is worth dying for. >> democracy belongs to us all. >> we are here in the sanctuary

of democracy. >> great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. >> american democracy is bigger than any one person. >> freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. >> we are still, at our core, a democracy. >> this is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. >>