Americans from different parties must see themselves as political opponents and not enemies, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday after Saturday's assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
"I'm an active member of our senatorial prayer group that tries to not just lower the temperature but to be role models to each other of how to respect each other as people, how to carry out the vision that President [Joe] Biden shared in his inaugural address, that we would see each other not as enemies, but as political opponents with different values and views, and we would speak about each other and act towards each other in ways that are more respectful and more supportive," Coons said.
With Republicans holding their party convention this week and the Democrats following in August, Coons said "we need to be more concerned and more diligent than ever in ensuring that our two conventions and the rest of this presidential campaign comes off safely and securely."
"We need to get through both of these conventions with a more respectful and constructive tone and recognize that ... while we have huge issues at stake in this election, they need to be more boring and less troubling," Coons said.
Coons lamented that "there have been too many close calls, in the time that I have been in Congress," including the "tragic day when Steve Scalise was shot. My close friend Jeff Flake, a conservative Republican senator, came back to the Capitol. I'll never forget standing with him, praying with him as he was in his baseball uniform, spattered with the blood of Congressman Scalise."
Coons added that he has a friendship former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head at a political event in Arizona in 2011.
"And Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi's husband, Paul, was brutally beaten and hospitalized in an attempt at attacking her," Coons said. "And then, last night's shocking event, by the grace of God, not a tragedy. We would be in a very different place this morning if there had been a different outcome."