Bill Clinton Returns to Oklahoma City on 30th Anniversary of Bombing: ‘America Needs the Oklahoma Standard'
Bill Clinton returned to Oklahoma City to help commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing — which remains the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history.
Clinton, who was president during the attack that killed 168 people, including 19 children, and injured over 600 others, spoke downtown at the First Church on Saturday, April 19. He honored the victims, survivors, first responders and all those affected by the tragedy.
During his remarks, which were broadcasted for viewing by the Clinton Foundation, Clinton implored the country to adopt the 'Oklahoma Standard' of unity.
'Everybody is arguing about whose resentments matter most. Whose resentments are more valid,' he said of the current state of politics.
Related: Where Are the Survivors of the Oklahoma City Bombing Today? Here's How Young Victims Remember the Day, 30 Years Later
'If our lives are gonna be dominated by the effort to dominate people we disagree with, we're gonna put the 250 year march toward a more perfect union at risk,' he continued, before saying that today's America should come together in 'service, honor and kindness' — just as the people of Oklahoma did after the deadly attack.
On April 19, 1995, a truck filled with explosives was parked outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. The explosives detonated just after 9 a.m. local time as employees were beginning their work day.
The attack was planned and executed by former Army sergeant and Gulf War veteran, Timothy McVeigh, and his co-conspirator, Terry Nichols.
In a video posted on the Clinton Foundation website on April 11, Clinton recalled the day of the historic event.
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'The nation's eyes were there. The nation's heart was broken there,' he said. 'I was privately praying that I would find the right words, the right tone, the right rhythm to somehow get into the mind and heart of as many Americans as possible,' he recalled.
Related: Okla. City Bombing Survivor Made a Promise to Herself Under Rubble — Now She's a CEO: 'Keep Going'
Kari Watkins, president and CEO of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, told PEOPLE in 2020 that 'We were defined not by the tragedy, but by the tenderness of the response. Instead of running away from the building in fear, people rushed toward it to help."
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