Biden reminds Americans that 'words matter,' calls on leaders to 'lower the temperature'

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday said he hopes that the pipe bombs being mailed to prominent critics of President Trump "might wake everybody in my business up a little bit and we will begin to put this nation back together again."



Ten packages containing explosive devices have been mailed this week to people like former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and on Thursday, it was announced that postal workers intercepted a package addressed to Biden. Speaking to a crowd at the State University of New York in Buffalo, Biden said he's "never, ever, ever looked at a political opponent as an enemy. They are an opponent in a contest of ideas, but not an enemy. We are Americans before we are Democrats or Republicans or Independents."

On Twitter Thursday morning, Trump tried to pin the "Anger we see today in our society" on the media, once again decrying what he calls "Fake News." He's wrong, Biden said, about the media, and also about migrants who want to come to the United States. "The press is not the enemy of the people," he said. "Immigrants are not animals. My hope and prayer is all of our leaders will work to lower the temperature in our public dialogue, and I have faith that they will do that." All of "this division, this hatred, this ugliness — it has to end," he continued. "Words matter."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up