Vice President Mike Pence rejected the notion that President Donald Trump's habit of attacking his opponents contributed to the shooting that left 11 people dead at a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday or the bombs that were mailed to a number of political figures last week.

"Look, everyone has their own style. And frankly, people on both side of the aisle use strong language about our political differences," Pence told NBC News correspondent Vaughn Hillyard on Saturday when asked if he has ever suggested to Trump to tone down the rhetoric. "But I just don't think you can connect it to threats or acts of violence, Vaughn. And I don't think the American people connect it."

A 46-year-old man is accused of entering the Tree of Life Synagogue on Saturday and opening fire in the deadliest attack on Jewish Americans practicing their beliefs in U.S. history. In addition to the 11 worshippers who were killed, six others were wounded, including four police officers who responded to the scene. The suspect, Robert Bowers, had been posting anti-Semitic rants on social media.

And last week, pipe bombs were mailed to more than a dozen prominent political figures, most of them connected with the Democratic Party. Several media and political voices have warned that the president's language could inspire troubled people to commit acts of violence.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge – a Republican who became the first person to head the Department of Homeland Security after it was created in response to the 9/11 attacks – called the recent events "a tragic manifestation of divisive, mean and intolerant civic leadership."

"The violence, bigotry and hate of the last few days has me distraught and upset, with my country and our leaders. First it was the targeting of politicians and journalists with weapons of destruction, soon followed by the murder of defenseless worshippers observing the Sabbath," Ridge said in a tweet from the account of his consulting firm, Ridge Global.

He continued, without naming specific politicians: "Too many of our civic leaders no longer speak to the better angels of our nation."

"I am so proud and grateful to be an American citizen yet am concerned about the direction our leaders are taking us. We must demand more than simply condemning these actions with empty rhetoric," he said.

On Saturday, Hillyard asked Pence if he was "complicit" in Trump's inflammatory rhetoric if he did not try to persuade the president to change.

Pence conceded that he and the president "have different styles," but he said Trump "connected to the American people because he spoke plainly."

"We need to be very careful" before we make any connection between political debate and "the kind of violent behavior we witnessed in Pittsburgh," the "threats of violence against prominent Americans that we witnessed in the pipe bombs" or other recent mass shootings, Pence said.

The vice president cautioned that people need to recognize the difference between "passionate debate and acts of violence and evil."

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen also condemned the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting as "evil."

"This was a pure act of evil," Nielsen told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace when asked if the shooting was a terrorist act or a hate crime. "You’ve heard that from the president and vice president yesterday, that’s what it is. We all condemn this in the strongest terms possible."

Nielsen said DHS officials had been to the Tree of Life Synagogue as recently as March when a protective security adviser visited the site.

Nielsen stressed the need for planning for shooting incidents because every location is different and because "in such events, there is rarely time to think through roles and responsibilities. The response has got to be automatic."

After the shooting, Trump suggested that "an armed guard inside the temple" might have prevented the tragedy.

Pittsburgh's Democratic Mayor Bill Peduto, a member of the gun control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, disagreed.

"I don't think that the answer to this problem is solved by having our synagogues, mosques and churches filled with armed guards or schools filled with armed guards," Peduto said during an interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

On Saturday, Trump tweeted that "all of America is in mourning over the mass murder of Jewish Americans."

Trump also condemned the shooting as an "evil Anti-Semitic attack is an assault on humanity. It will take all of us working together to extract the poison of Anti-Semitism from our world. We must unite to conquer hate."