Kentucky’s Republican governor says blood might be shed if Democrat Hillary Clinton is elected president.

Speaking to the annual Values Voter Summit on Saturday in Washington, Gov. Matt Bevin said he was asked if the country could ever recover if Clinton is elected president. Bevin said it was possible, but quoted Thomas Jefferson, saying the roots of the tree of liberty are watered by the blood of patriots and tyrants. Bevin said it breaks his heart to think that the blood of one of his nine children might be needed to redeem something “that we through our apathy and indifference have given away.”

In a statement Tuesday, Bevin says he was speaking about the sacrifice required of members of the military, saying “we cannot be complacent about the determination of radical Islamic extremists to destroy our freedoms.”