Former President Bill Clinton, in an interview with the New York Times ahead of a speech today on the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombings, drew a link between the rhetoric of politicians and the threats and sometimes violent acts by those who hear the rhetoric.
Several lawmakers, most of them Democrats who voted for health care reform, have received threats in recent weeks. The sargeant-at-arms recently said threats have spiked since health care passed.
From the Clinton interview:
“There can be real consequences when what you say animates people who do things you would never do,” Mr. Clinton said in an interview, saying that Timothy McVeigh, who carried out the Oklahoma City bombing, and those who assisted him, “were profoundly alienated, disconnected people who bought into this militant antigovernment line.”
The former president said the potential for stirring a violent response might be even greater now with the reach of the Internet and other common ways of communication that did not exist on April 19, 1995, when the building was struck.
“Because of the Internet, there is this vast echo chamber and our advocacy reaches into corners that never would have been possible before,” said Mr. Clinton, who said political messages are now able to reach those who are both “serious and seriously disturbed.” He will be delivering the keynote address Friday at an event about the Oklahoma City attack being sponsored by the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the Democratic Leadership Council.
Clinton also dismissed claims from those like Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who has called the Obama administration a “gangster government.”
“They are not gangsters,” he said. “They were elected. They are not doing anything they were not elected to do.”
Clinton is speaking at the Center for American Progress today about the 1995 bombings.
