Pence calls for caution
Strong debate and ‘evil’ are not the same, he says
Vice president says Trump’s remarks can’t be linked to violence
Vice President Mike Pence rejected the notion that President Donald Trump’s habit of attacking his opponents contributed to the shooting that left 11 people dead at a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday or the bombs that were mailed to political figures last week.
“Look, everyone has their own style. And frankly, people on both side of the aisle use strong language about our political differences,” Pence told NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard on Saturday when asked if he has ever suggested to Trump that he tone down his rhetoric. “But I just don’t think you can connect it to threats or acts of violence, Vaughn. And I don’t think the American people connect it.”
A 46-year-old man is accused of entering the Tree of Life Synagogue on Saturday and opening fire in the deadli- est attack on Jewish Americans practicing their beliefs in U.S. history. The suspect, Robert Bowers, had been posting anti-Semitic rants on social media.
And last week, pipe bombs were mailed to more than a dozen prominent political figures, most of them connected with the Democratic Party.
Several media and political voices have warned that the president’s language could inspire troubled people to commit acts of violence.
Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge – a Republican who became the first person to head the Department of Homeland Security after it was created in response to the 9/11 attacks – called the events “a tragic manifestation of divisive, mean and intolerant civic leadership.”
“The violence, bigotry and hate of the last few days has me distraught and upset, with my country and our leaders. First it was the targeting of politicians and journalists with weapons of destruction, soon followed by the murder of defenseless worshippers observing the Sabbath,” Ridge said in a tweet from the account of his consulting firm, Ridge Global. “Too many of our civic leaders no longer speak to the better angels of our nation.”
On Saturday, Hillyard asked Pence if he was “complicit” in Trump’s inflam- matory rhetoric if he did not try to persuade the president to change. Pence conceded that he and the president “have different styles,” but he said Trump “connected to the American people because he spoke plainly.”
“We need to be very careful” before we make any connection between political debate and “the kind of violent behavior we witnessed in Pittsburgh,” the “threats of violence against prominent Americans that we witnessed in the pipe bombs” or other recent mass shootings, Pence said.
The vice president cautioned that people need to recognize the difference between “passionate debate and acts of violence and evil.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, when asked by “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace whether the Pittsburgh shooting was a terrorist act or a hate crime, said: “This was a pure act of evil. You’ve heard that from the president and vice president yesterday. ... We all condemn this in the strongest terms possible.”