Former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday waded into the debate about America’s political rhetoric in the wake of last weekend’s shootings in Arizona, saying the tone of the national conversation must change.

Speaking from Haiti on the one-year anniversary of the earthquake there, Mr. Clinton suggested that passionate political speech should not be directly blamed for the kind of violence that occurred in Tucson. But he said the angry back-and-forth of modern debate is not healthy.

“No one intends to do anything that encourages this sort of behavior,” Mr. Clinton told the British Broadcasting Corporation. But he said the political commentary should not “degenerate into demonization” because it “falls on the unhinged and the hinged alike.”

Mr. Clinton has himself been the target of intense political rhetoric, especially during the Monica Lewinsky scandal of his administration, but he is also known to dish it out himself. During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama complained frequently about Mr. Clinton’s comments on behalf of his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

On Tuesday, Mr. Clinton said that politicians and others who engage in verbal battle “cannot be unaware of the fact that – particularly with the Internet – there’s this huge echo chamber out there.”

He said the House — now under Republican leadership — should lead the way in toning down the rhetoric in the wake of the serious injury to one of its members, Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona.

“This is an occasion for us to reaffirm that our political differences shouldn’t degenerate into demonization, in the sense that if you don’t agree with me you’re not a good American,” Mr. Clinton said. “I’m hoping there will be a lot of good debates that go beyond turning this into politics.”