At a memorial marking the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, former President Bill Clinton lightened the atmosphere with a joke about Donald Trump before addressing the more serious topic of political division.
“I’m old and I can’t run for anything anymore,” Clinton, 78, told the crowd in downtown Oklahoma City on Saturday. “I’m almost as old as President Trump!” His comment sparked laughter, but Clinton quickly shifted to a more somber tone. He urged Americans to move past politics of resentment and adopt the “Oklahoma Standard”—a spirit of kindness, respect, and unity that emerged after the 1995 bombing.
“Everyone is arguing about whose grievances matter most,” he said. “If we let our lives be dominated by the desire to control those we disagree with, we risk undermining the 250-year journey toward a more perfect union.”
Clinton was president during the tragic 1995 bombing, which was carried out by anti-government extremists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. They detonated a truck bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children. The bombing occurred at 9 a.m., as workers, including those at America’s Kids Day Care Center, began their day.
“The nation’s eyes were there. The nation’s heart was broken there,” Clinton later reflected in a post for the Clinton Foundation.
Clinton’s speech, delivered at First Church, included the reading of the victims’ names, with survivors also in attendance. His warning about the dangers of political polarization was evident as he stood before the site of the Murrah building’s ruins.
Finally, in case anyone wondered, Clinton is actually younger than Trump. Trump, born June 14, 1946, is about two months older than Clinton, who was born on August 19 of the same year.
