Bill Clinton: 'Donald Trump Has Poured Poison Down America's Throat'

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Former President Bill Clinton has laid the blame on President Donald Trump for the 'lack of civility in politics' and suggesting he has poured “poison" down "America’s throat.”

During an interview on Tuesday with “The Daily Show’s” Trevor Noah, Clinton said:

“It started off calling Mexicans rapists and murderers,” Clinton told Noah.

Clinton was referring to a line from then-GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s 2015 speech announcing his White House run.

During the speech, Trump insisted that Mexico was "not sending their best."

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The Hill reports: "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people," Trump said at the time.

“A lot of poison has been poured down America’s throat since that 2016 campaign started,” Clinton said when asked about calls for civility after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was booted from a Virginia restaurant over the weekend by its co-owner over her role in the Trump administration.

Sanders tweeted from her official account after the incident, saying she had “politely left” the Lexington, Va., restaurant, the Red Hen.

“I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so,” she said.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) later raised eyebrows by calling on her supporters to go head-to-head with Trump officials in restaurants, department stores, and gas stations.

“It’s hard not to pour poison down people’s throat and not have some of it come back up and bubble up,” Clinton said on Tuesday.

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Saying he has “a lot of respect” for the restaurant’s co-owner and adding that it was ultimately her decision to make about asking Sanders to leave, Clinton also offered praise for the White House spokeswoman.

“I also had a lot of respect for the way Sarah Huckabee Sanders handled it,” Clinton said in the joint interview with James Patterson about the pair’s new book, “The President is Missing.”

“I mean she was very dignified. She didn’t chew them out. She didn’t pitch a fit. She didn’t call them immigrant-loving thugs,” Clinton, 71, said. “She just got up and left and offered to pay.”

“I’d like to see this be the beginning of something where it would be better if we started talking to each other,” the former commander in chief told the Comedy Central host.

“My point is, sooner or later, people need to quit tearing each other down and go to work. You can’t foment as much hatred that has been fomented by the administration without having a blowback,” Clinton added.

“So if they want to have more civility, they need to stop the name-calling and take the lead.”