Kerry Wants Congress to Tone Down Rhetoric

Senator John Kerry (D-MA) “said Tuesday it’s time to tone it down on Capitol Hill,” POLITICO reports.

In a speech to the progressive think tank, Center for American Progress, Kerry called for civil dialogue in the wake of Saturday’s shootings in Arizona.

“In the weeks and months ahead, the real issue we need to confront isn’t just what role divisive political rhetoric may have played on Saturday – but it’s the violence divisive, overly simplistic dialogue does to our democracy every day,’ said Kerry, according to his prepared remarks.

Four days after a gunman opened fire and critical wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) at a congressional event in Tucson, lawmakers have debated whether the incendiary political rhetoric was to blame. Kerry joined the chorus of those saying that political rhetoric could be cause for the tragedy, adding that it also makes it difficult to get things done on Capitol Hill.

In the spirit of bipartisanship, Kerry praised newly elected Republican House Speaker John Boehner for suspending business on his side of the Capitol in the wake of the shootings, but “the question now is whether we’re all going to suspend and then end business as usual in the United States Capitol.”