A clear majority of Americans said the country’s fiery political discourse had nothing to do with the shooting rampage in Arizona that critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed six other people , according to a CBS poll released yesterday.
Nearly six in 10 Americans — 57 percent — said they didn’t think crazed gunman Jared Lee Loughner was motivated by heated rhetoric when he opened fire in a Tucson supermarket Jan. 8.
Among Republicans, 69 percent said rhetoric had nothing to do with Loughner’s act, while 19 percent said it played a part. Among Democrats, 49 percent did not link the shooting to political rhetoric; 42 percent did.
Bill Clinton, who was president during the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, yesterday weighed in on the Arizona shooting. While he avoided laying blame on the body politic, he said it’s time to tone down the debate.
“Nobody intends for this kind of thing to happen,” Clinton told the BBC. “But we do need to be careful about things we say.”