ICYMI: On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Kelly Discusses Political Violence, Social Media, and Pushing to Lower Health Care Costs for Families

In case you missed it, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly sat down with Stephen Colbert last night to talk about the consequences of political violence in the United States, his personal experience with this issue, and how social media can divide Americans. Kelly also highlighted how he's pushing to lower health care costs for families, while President Trump would rather shut down the government.

Sen. Kelly speaks to Stephen Colbert on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Watch the interview here. See key excepts below:

On his direct experience with political violence…

"In 2011, I got a call. I was in Houston, Texas. Gabby was in Tucson meeting with her constituents, and I got a call from Gabby's chief of staff who just very simply said to me, "Gabby has been shot." Didn't have a lot of information. Hung up from that call. Little while later, I get another call from her, and she gave me really devastating news that she had been shot in the head. And, later that day, on an airplane from Houston to Tucson, I found out through the media they pronounced her dead. That lasted for about 30 minutes. I was there with my kids and my mom, and I got up and went into the bathroom. I was just crushed.

About ten days ago, I went right back to that day, thinking about Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk's wife, and the devastating news she received and how this is such a punch in the gut. Now, to some extent, I was able to recover. Gabby was alive. Her [Erika's] husband died. Their kids will never know their father. They are so young. So, this is, you know, really, really challenging for these people. Nobody deserves this."

On defending free speech, even for those you disagree with…

"I didn't agree with Charlie Kirk on much. But one thing I agreed with is he had every right to be there. To debate people about the issues, issues that he cared about. I was on the other side of a lot of those issues. But one thing I did agree is that he had freedom of speech rights. And I would go to war to defend that."

On reducing division by disconnecting from social media…

"I think one thing we can do is if we're trying to make this better, there's one thing I can think for everybody to do, put down their phone. […] Now you've got this reinforcement and this bias that is just separating our nation to the point where I'm not so sure, if we go too far, we're not going to be able to get back it. So, if folks can just put down the social media, try to disconnect and try to have real conversations with real people over these issues, we'd get to a much better place."

On Democrats' push to lower health care costs as President Trump refuses to work with them and avoid a government shutdown…

"Let me make this perfectly clear to everybody. This is a fight over the cost of your health care. That's all this is about. The president says no. He says he would prefer a government shutdown."