"I hope that Mr. Trump will maintain the level of rhetoric that we just now heard," Jesse Jackson said. | Getty Jesse Jackson: Trump's rhetoric 'helped to seed these clouds' He does praise the presumptive Republican nominee for his recent video statement.

Donald Trump's video statement at the end of a week of national turmoil was a good start, the Rev. Jesse Jackson indicated Sunday. But, he said, the presumptive Republican nominee bears some of the blame for his past rhetoric.

In his video statement, Trump said that the deaths of two black men at the hands of police show "how much work we have to do in order to make every American feel that their safety is protected." Trump made his statement Friday, after the mass shooting in Dallas in which five law enforcement officers were killed.


"Well, those are significant remarks," the civil rights leader told "Fox News Sunday" after the show played a clip of Trump condemning the deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota.

Jackson told host Shannon Bream, "But I submit to you when you do the birther movement on the president, which is a dog whistle kind of anti-black, the anti-Mexican, the deportation of 15 million people, of families, disruption, anti-Muslim. That kind of rhetoric has helped to seed these clouds."

"I hope that Mr. Trump will maintain the level of rhetoric that we just now heard," Jackson said.