Former Secretary of Defense, CIA Director and White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta called on President Trump to take lessons from past presidents and speak to the nation about the terrorist incidents involving 10 explosive devices that were sent to prominent Democrats and media outlets.
“I would prefer that the president of the United States take the time to seriously talk to the American people about the nature of this threat and the importance of finding out who is responsible, and to take some steps to lower the rhetoric that has been involved here because frankly none of that helps when we’re trying to deal with this kind of threat,” Panetta said on CNN’s “The Situation Room.”
{mosads}”I think the president ought to learn some lessons from those past presidents about the importance of the position of being president of the United States at a time when this country is threatened with terrorist attacks. This is a moment to speak to the American people seriously and soberly about the importance of protecting our security,” he added, citing President Clinton’s and President Bush’s response to the Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11, respectively.
Ten explosive devices were sent in recent days to Democratic donor George Soros, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former Attorney General Eric Holder, former CIA Director John Brennan at the CNN offices in New York, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), former Vice President Joe Biden and actor Rober De Niro.
None of the explosives went off and no injuries were reported.
Panetta was quick to condemn the incidents as acts of terrorism.
“When you have 10 bombs that are distributed across this country, that constitutes a terrorist attack on our country, and we have to do everything necessary to make sure that we find out who is responsible and take steps to ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” he said.
“I think the American people are smart enough to take this threat very seriously. I know that in today’s political volatility, there is a tendency to take every event and label it as some kind of political effort to undermine others. This is not the case here. We’ve got somebody who has sent bombs to individuals and could very well have killed innocent people as a result of that,” Panetta added.
The packages sparked a national conversation over the divisiveness of America’s current political rhetoric and a bipartisan call for both sides to ease tensions.
“What is not good is overheated rhetoric, extremism that pushes people to violence. And at the end of the day, we may have political difference, but this is one country, we’re all Americans, e pluribus unum, out of many one, and keeping the dialogue and debate civil is very, very important,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) said.
“I just want to tell you that in these times, we have to unify. We have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America,” Trump echoed at a White House event.