Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, said Tuesday that he was doing his job by walking out of a moment of silence for victims of the Texas church shooting.
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Lieu walked out of Congress’ moment of silence for the 26 victims in an apparent attempt to raise awareness for the gun control measures that he supports, such as universal background checks and a ban on assault rifles.
During an interview with HLN, Lieu claimed he was not politicizing the moment of silence by walking out in support of gun control.
“I am no longer going to participate in a brief moment of silence on the House floor,” Lieu asserted. “Every time a mass shooting happens we do a brief moment of silence and that’s it.”
“But still, a moment of silence?” anchor Carol Costello, who seemed perturbed by Lieu’s stunt, asked. “Some people might say you even politicized that.”
“I view it as doing my job to highlight this issue because you don’t just want Congress to do moments of silences every time a mass shooting happens,” Lieu responded. “You want us to take action to try and prevent the shooting from happening in the first place.”