Former Vice President Joe Biden said he hopes political leaders will tone done their rhetoric following this week’s attempted pipe bombings.
Biden, who was among the prominent Democrats targeted by the bombs, said that while law enforcement doesn’t yet have “all the facts,” he hopes the incidents will serve as a wakeup call that the country needs to come together.
{mosads}”My hope is this recent spate of who knows what they were — pipe bombs being mailed — might wake everybody in my business up a little bit and we will begin to put this nation back together again,” Biden said in an address at the State University of New York at Buffalo on Thursday, according to NBC News.
Biden was one of almost a dozen people targeted by packages containing explosive devices that were intercepted by law enforcement this week. No injuries or deaths have been associated with the mailings.
President Trump condemned the attempted attacks at a campaign rally Wednesday night, while also calling on the mainstream news media to take a look at its own rhetoric. One of the packages with explosives was addressed to MSNBC contributor and former CIA chief John Brennan; it was was mistakenly addressed to CNN, causing an evacuation of its building in New York.
“The press is not the enemy of the people, immigrants are not animals,” said Biden, who’s considered a potential 2020 contender. “My hope and prayer is that all of our leaders will work to lower the temperature in our public dialogue, and I have faith that they will do that.”
CNN President Jeff Zucker issued a statement after CNN’s New York newsroom was evacuated Wednesday, calling on Trump to take responsibility for his words.
“The President, and especially the White House Press Secretary, should understand their words matter,” he said. “Thus far, they have shown no comprehension of that.”