Dallas is a "kind and benevolent city," and its law enforcement community will remain strong in the
wake of Thursday night's police shootings that left five law enforcement officers dead and six wounded, said Rep. Pete Sessions, whose Congressional district includes the city.
"It's obvious that for every action there could be an opposite and equal reaction," Sessions said Friday on
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "What happened maybe somewhere else in the country found itself in its place, even in peace and a peaceful opportunity in Dallas."
But the shootings are not something the city can accept, Sessions continued, and he will stand with the law enforcement community.
"But it is up to all of us to speak to our children and others about making sure we avoid what could become next in this country," Sessions told the program. "We've got to solve it."
Overnight, Sessions had commented to the network that perhaps the police officers patroling protests over the shooting deaths of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
"The Dallas Police Department was trying to be a part of a community effort to acknowledge the things that are happening across this country," said Sessions. "They put themselves in circumstances, perhaps, to be with people who are perhaps walking or being prepared for what may have happened. It was an ambush on them and I don't think they were prepared."
Sessions said he might have even joined with the protesters, but at the same time, "we have to understand that it's also a time when we cannot put our guard down. We have to look at high places and low places.
"And the search for the bombs alone and the threat of that is an indication that we still have to have law enforcement that is as vigilant as they can be with the knowledge something like this could happen. "
Sessions said that he's going to Cleveland for the Republican National Convention where he will support Donald Trump, and commented that he believes Trump will bring 10 million new jobs to the United States, which desperately needs them.
"Where you have cities that have vibrant and they care about their homeless people and care about mentally ill people, which is what Dallas struggles with, like everybody else," said Sessions.
"It is a comprehension that we have to all come to grips with. But this is done, not through America having a terrible unemployment problem. It's done through having a vibrant, strong nation where people then help each other."