Webb joins debate over candidates’ rhetoric, tells Trump to ‘stop throwing bombs’

Democratic presidential hopeful Jim Webb offered his opinion Sunday about GOP candidate Donald Trump’s comments on illegal Mexican immigrants, telling him to “stop throwing bombs.”

“This kind of rhetoric from people who want to be commander in chief is not helpful,” Webb told “Fox News Sunday.” “You need to be inclusive, recognize people. Don't be throwing bombs to these cultural groups.”

The former Virginia senator and Bush administration Navy secretary joins essentially every Democratic and Republican presidential candidate in commenting on Trump saying last month that Mexico is sending a lot of problematic people to the United States, including drug dealers and rapists.

Trump and his remarks have essentially dominated the 2016 White House news coverage and come amid the cultural debate about removing the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina capitol grounds and other government buildings and sites across the country.

Webb suggested Democrats and Republicans alike are culpable in perpetuating the new culture wars and that the national debate needs to return to discussions about education and job creation.

“Unfortunately I think you’re seeing it from both sides, which is why I mentioned the situation with Donald Trump with respect to Mexican Americans,” Webb said. “Flying the Confederate battle flag in public places morph(ed) into something much different. …When are we going to talk about jobs? When are we going to talk about education?”

Webb has 2.3 percent of the primary vote and trails front-runner Hillary Clinton (62 percent), then Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (14 percent) and Vice President Biden (13 percent), according to an averaging of polls by the nonpartisan website RealClearPoltics.com

Webb argued that the Democratic Party has moved “too far to the left,” a growing argument since Sanders, a self-described socialist, entered the race.  

Webb also said he hopes his candidacy brings “a different tone” to his party.

“It’s not my party,” he told Fox News. “We need to bring different people back in.”

He also said that he would be “very hesitant” about approving an Iran nuclear deal based upon what he knows so far about the details and argued the United States has other ways to improve relations with the rogue nation.