The defendant in the attack on the Governor's Residence pled guilty to attempted murder, arson, terrorism, and more. Lori and I wanted to share some thoughts.

This morning, the defendant in the April attack at the Governor’s Residence pled guilty to attempted murder, arson, terrorism, and several other counts.

It’s hard for me to utter the words “attempted murder,” when it’s about my own life. To know that someone tried to kill me.

It’s especially hard to know that he tried to burn our family to death, while we slept.

To be honest, Lori and I have struggled over the last six months to try and make sense of all of this. The hardest part has been trying to explain it to our four children, and to our nieces and nephews that were with us that night.

I’ve carried with me this enormous sense of guilt — guilt that doing this job that I love so much has put our children’s lives at risk. It’s been really hard. And candidly, I don’t know that I’ve been able to give them the right answers. I don’t know that I’ve been able to ease our children’s worries… but we’ve tried, and it’s an ongoing process.

As you can see from the videos that the District Attorney played, the defendant was able to penetrate the Residence right up to a door that led to the hallway where we were sleeping, in our private living area.

I know those videos are chilling. They’ve been haunting me for months.

When my family and I walk through the Residence now, we often think about the steps he took and where he roamed. Those double doors that lead to my office, Lori’s office, and where we sleep — those were the doors that he tried to break through. That metal hammer that he wielded is what he wanted to use to kill me with.

I’m struck when I’m outside walking in the gardens (usually on the phone, working) by the charred bush that remains outside that window where he threw the first Molotov cocktail. The burden of the cleanup and the rebuild has been enormous, and it is ongoing.

The construction around us and the unseen but very real security changes in all aspects of our lives and our children’s lives are a constant reminder of what happened. They’re a reminder that our safety is not assured, and we are vulnerable.

I want you to know, we will forever be grateful to the firefighters who rushed toward danger and put out that fire just in time. We’re also incredibly grateful to the troopers who rushed our family out to safety in those early morning hours, and we’re so appreciative of the dedicated staff at the Governor’s Residence, who continue to come to work with purpose and with joy every day.

Lori and I are mindful that serving in public office today brings with it risks.

It’s a sad state of the world that we are in, but I’ll be honest — before this attack, those risks just felt very theoretical to me. Something that might happen elsewhere, but couldn’t have happened here.

This made it all real — and it brings with it a real sense of vulnerability that our family feels every single day. We are working through this — and the attack took an emotional toll. We’re confident it’ll get better, but we also know it’s going to always be with us.

Our family is not the only ones to experience political violence — violence that is used to try and silence people or intimidate people. It’s important that, in this time of rising political violence, that none of us grow numb to it or accept this as the normal course of doing business for elected officials.

So many leaders from here in Pennsylvania, across the country, and around the world have reached out to offer comfort over the last number of months. Inevitably, those conversations turn to their own sense of vulnerability, and their own worry about political violence.

I’ve talked to people who are thinking about running for office who have said they don’t want to because they don’t want to put their families at risk. These are good people who just want to serve, who are being impacted by this unacceptable level of political violence that we’re seeing in our country.

We need real accountability for acts of political violence, and today represents real accountability for the violence that came here to Pennsylvania.

I want to thank District Attorney Fran Chardo — a friend for nearly 20 years — and his team in the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office. They’ve demonstrated great care, concern and professionalism. District Attorney Chardo has demonstrated strong, compassionate leadership, and I am grateful to him. This is a just outcome, and I want you to know that our family fully supported the plea that he negotiated.

Today is Shemini Atzeret, a holiday in our faith. This evening begins Simchat Torah. Together, they’re a moment to renew our spirituality and our connection to God.

We’ve leaned a lot on our faith these past six months to try and work through this — but we have also leaned on the faith of so many others in the process.

We have been so strengthened by the faith and the prayers that others have shared with us, and we have seen so much light in the midst of this darkness.

We are not deterred in our desire to serve others — both because of our faith, and because of the examples others have set for us.

We remain focused and committed to doing our work on behalf of the good people of Pennsylvania. Nothing and no one will stop us from doing that important work.

We will forever be changed by this. We know that time will heal, but the scars will remain.

Lori and I are grateful to you, for reading these words and hearing our story. We’re grateful to the people of Pennsylvania — and today, we’re grateful to have some closure on this chapter in our lives.