Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. compared the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump to that of his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, and his father, Robert F. Kennedy.

“It’s time for us all, every American, to take a step back, take a breath to understand that this moment is insane, that we’re all complicit in it,” Kennedy said.

“That all of us who fed into the vitriol, the hatred, the anger, that this is the ultimate culmination of that,” the candidate continued. “And we need to all step back and start seeing each other once again as Americans, as part of a community, understand that America is better than this, and we now have the exemplary nation again, and that we need to come together in a spirit of love, of forgiveness, of reconciliation. And let’s start healing our country again and use this terrible, terrible event, to start unifying again.”

Kennedy encouraged Americans to “pray at this moment for President Trump and for his family, which are all going through an ordeal with which I’m very familiar.”

The presidential candidate explained that at the time his uncle was assassinated, he was ridiculed as well.

“And when my uncle landed in Dallas in November 22nd, 1963, there were posters all around Dallas that said, Wanted Dead or Alive.’ And they — the Dallas newspapers — were printing very, very poisonous articles about him. And his death in some ways was linked to that wave of hatred,” he explained. “And the same was true with my dad.”

“Stop empowering people who are filled with hatred and marginalized who are capable of taking these kinds of actions,” he said.

“We all have an opportunity now to do what god wants us to do and turn evil into good and use this terrible, tragic incident to make something better for our country.”