Violent behaviour and rhetoric against politicians is becoming “normalised”, according to the former speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
Ms Pelosi said attacks against people in public life have become more common and are “detrimental to a democracy”.
She made the comments as she spoke to reporters at the residence of the US ambassador to Ireland in Dublin.
The 84-year-old will receive the Sutherland Leadership Award at an event at University College Dublin.
Ms Pelosi agreed that politicians are more vulnerable in the work that they do.
“We can’t stay on that course because we’re democracies,” she said.
“People have a right to their opinion, I myself came up through being an organiser so I respect the views that some people have on the street, but when they resort to a violent rhetoric, and they do so in a way that is frightening to families in their homes.
“You have some exposure to that here now, we have it massively in the US. That’s really detrimental to a democracy.
“That’s why we have to pull ourselves back from this path that we have gone on, that has been normalising violent behaviour and rhetoric.”
While referring to Donald Trump without naming him, Ms Pelosi said there is a need to “tone down the rhetoric”.
“A president who would say, if you beat up the reporters I’ll pay for your lawyers. What’s that? That’s not right, and it certainly has no place in a democracy,” she added.
“We have to tone down the rhetoric, period, and as we make our distinctions about why you should vote for us and our case, civil liberties, woman’s right to choose, protect the planet, stop gun violence, and the list goes on.
“Let’s just stick with the issues rather than being bankrupt of ideas about how to take our country forward as they are and resorting to violence and misrepresentations and big dark money suffocating airways, whether they are the fossil fuel industry, whether it’s gun industry, big dark money, or politics.
“So one of the things we have to do is make our democracies more democratic so that people know that their voice is as important as anyone’s, that big money is not more important than the voices of so many of our grassroots people.
“That’s what Democrats are about.
“One of the strengths on the other side has been the negativity, they don’t like women, they don’t like gays, they don’t like newcomers, they don’t like LGBTQ, whatever it is. They’re never going to vote for us.
“Inclusiveness is not what they’re about. Then we get the people who genuinely have concerns about their economic future.
“When I came to Congress, there were 12 women on the Democratic side. We now had 94 women on the Democratic side because we made a decision to recruit, to fund, to train, to mentor and some made their own decision, but they saw an opening and a more welcoming attitude.”
