Speaking from Philadelphia the day after a sniper shot 12 police officers and killed five in Dallas, Hillary Clinton lamented that in recent times a wave of hate has been “unleashed” in the United States.
“I think that something has been unleashed in our nation where people are saying cruel and hateful things about one another from all kinds of vantage points,” Clinton said, when asked whether the heated national political climate helped lead to this violence, during an MSNBC interview on Friday.
She added, “We need to start looking at each other as fellow Americans. And we need to be listening and working together to try to stem the violence, the hatred, the divisive rhetoric.”
The presumptive Democratic nominee said that in the days going forward, Americans must support the both the police and African American’s rights while recognizing that, “We also have to be honest, all of us, in facing implicit bias that all of us, unfortunately, I think, may still have.”
In the wake of the shooting, Clinton and her opponent Donald Trump cancelled their campaign events. Earlier in the day Clinton tweeted out her sympathies, saying that she “mourn[ed] for the officers shot wile doing their sacred duty to protect peaceful protesters.” Trump also sent out similar regrets.
On the campaign trail, Clinton often blames Trump’s rhetoric for inciting violence across the nation. During a speech to a teachers union in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday Clinton said that bullying and harassment was on the rise in schools, and called this “the Trump effect.”
Clinton went on to tell MSNBC that if elected she would work to create “more understanding between” fellow Americans.
