Bill Clinton: House Should "Lead the Way" in Charge to Change Political Climate
Former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday urged the House of Representatives to "lead the way" in softening the tone of American political discourse, arguing that heated rhetoric "falls on the unhinged and the hinged alike."
Speaking from Haiti, Clinton, in an interview with the BBC, expressed sorrow at last Saturday's shootings in Tucson, Arizona, which killed six and injured 14 - including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head and is currently being treated in the hospital.
Special Section: Tragedy in Tucson
"She is an immensely impressive woman. And I am thrilled that she has survived this long and I hope that she will make a complete recovery," said Clinton, adding that he felt "horrible" about those who lost their lives in the attack.
Clinton said he hoped the moment would inspire debate about how to prevent such violence in the future - and that politicians would "be sensitive to" the fact that "everything any of us says falls on the unhinged and the hinged alike."
"I'm hoping there'll be a lot of debates that go beyond turning this into politics; about how and why it happened and what else we could do to minimize those things," Clinton said.
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The former president drew comparisons to the Oklahoma City bombing, which occurred during his first term as president in 1995. As many as 168 people were killed when Timothy McVeigh exploded a truck bomb outside Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
"On the fifteenth anniversary of the Oklahoma City incident in April, I wrote an essay in which I said that I could see this level of anger rising as it did once before, when I was elected," Clinton said.
"No one intends to do anything that encourages this sort of behavior - and I think it's wrong for anyone to suggest it," he continued. "But we cannot be unaware of the fact that, particularly with the Internet, there's this huge echo chamber out there."
"I think this is an occasion for us to reaffirm that our political differences shouldn't degenerate into demonization or the sense that, you know, 'if you don't agree with me, you're not a good American,'" Clinton added. "I'd like to see the House of Representatives lead the way."
