So we're all processing this week and the many weeks before, just to state the obvious, the moment we're in right now is incredibly dark. And there is no easy way to process it. Believe me, I try to do that every day with all of you. But we've been here before, a version of here before. We have seen how real leaders respond to moments like

this. And we should remember that leadership right now. We should insist that the people in power

today follow those examples. Today I was thinking a lot about January 8th, 2011. Congresswoman

Gabby Giffords was shot in the head while hosting a meeting for her constituents in Tucson,

Arizona, something members of Congress do all the time. The gunman was just 22 years old.

He appeared to have been radicalized online on MySpace, and the attack was a targeted,

premeditated attempt at a political assassination. Now, Giffords herself, of course, survived,

but 17 people were shot, 17 other people,

I should say, were shot. Six of them died, including a federal judge, a nine-year-old girl,

and one of Gifford's young staffers, Gabe Zimmerman. Now, here was Republican Speaker of the House

John Boehner, days after that attack in 2011. The body, this body has yet to fully register the magnitude of this tragedy.

We feel of litany of unwanted emotions that no resolution could possibly capture.

We know that we gather here without distinction of party. The needs of this institution

have always risen above partisanship. And what this institution needs right now is strength,

wholly and uplifting strength. Our hearts are broken, but our spirit is not. This is a time for the House to lock arms

in prayer for the fallen and the wounded, and a resolve to carry on a dialogue of democracy.

We may not yet have all the final answers, but we already have the answer that matters most.

That we're Americans and will make it through this difficult period.

That really wasn't all that long ago.

I mean, that was the top Republican in elected office at the time, getting visibly emotional, calling for Americans to lock arms in response to an act of political violence.

This is how real leaders are supposed to respond in moments like these.

It's not even the only example we can look to.

...