New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday said President Donald Trump needs to take the lead in turning down the temperature on political rhetoric, after explosives were sent to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, CNN, George Soros, and other liberal leaders seen as his political opponents.
"Unfortunately, this atmosphere of hatred is contributing to the choices people are making to turn to violence," de Blasio told reporters during a press conference, while not blaming Trump directly. "There's no question about it, and the way to stop that is to turn back the other way, to bring down the temperature, to end any messages about the use of violence against people we disagree with, and that has to start at the top."
The mayor, a Democrat, added the "atmosphere of hatred" occurring in the United States is contributing to people choosing to turn to violence.
De Blasio, when asked if he has any message for Trump specifically, called on members of both parties to tone down their language.
"Don't encourage hatred, don't encourage attacks on media," he said. "You can disagree, but you have to show respect for people and air your disagreements peacefully."
Cuomo also decried the current political environment and the divisiveness that has been occurring, and said extreme rhetoric might be to blame for the mailings.
"This a political year. It's a political season," the governor said. "We are weeks from an election. And that's obviously in the air. And that's an obvious fact. But we've been through many political seasons and we have political differences and that's actually good for democracy.
"What is not good is overheated rhetoric, extremism that pushes people to violence. And at the end of the day, we may have political differences, but this is one country. We're all Americans."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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