( CNN ) -- Former President Clinton said he sees parallels in the mood of the country now and on April 19 , 1995 , when the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people while he was in the White House . `` There 's the same kind of economic and social upheaval now , '' he told CNN 's Wolf Blitzer in an interview to air Friday on `` The Situation Room . '' `` Then , you had the rise of extremist voices on talk radio . Here , you have a billion Internet sites , '' Clinton said . And although the hard-core , anti-government radicals are still a minority , `` they can communicate with each other much faster and much better than they did before . The main thing that bothered us since the time of Oklahoma City was that already , there was enough use of the Internet that if you knew how to find a Web site -- and not everybody even had a computer back then , but if you knew how to find it , you could learn , for example , how to make a bomb . '' `` Now , everybody has got a computer ; Web sites are easily accessible . And you can be highly selective and spend all of your time with people that are , you know , kind of out there with you , '' he continued . Clinton said the Oklahoma City bombing -- then the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history -- was the `` last in a series of very high-profile violent encounters '' during the 1990s between anti-government activists and authorities . He said the country is better protected to prevent such an attack now . But when asked whether the anti-government mood now is more intense than in the 1990s , Clinton said , `` Now , there are all of these groups , you know , saying things like the current political debate is just a prelude to civil war , all of that kind of stuff . '' In an interview with the New York Times on Friday , Clinton warned of the affect that angry political rhetoric might have on antigovernment radicals like Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh ; he pointed to Rep. Michele Bachmann calling the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress `` the gangster government '' at a tax day Tea Party rally on Thursday . `` They are not gangsters , '' Clinton told the newspaper . `` They were elected . They are not doing anything they were not elected to do . '' Clinton said that demonizing the government with incendiary language can have effects beyond just rallying a crowd . `` There can be real consequences when what you say animates people who do things you would never do , '' Clinton told the newspaper , pointing out that McVeigh and his conspirators `` were profoundly alienated , disconnected people who bought into this militant antigovernment line . '' But Clinton said he did n't want to draw too tight of an analogy between then and now . He added that it 's not his intent to stifle criticism of government . `` I 'm not interested in gagging anybody . I actually love this political debate , '' Clinton said . `` Most of the Tea Party people , though , are explicitly political . You 've got to give that now , '' he said . `` Forget about whether we disagree with them or not . It 's really important to be able to criticize your government and criticize elected officials . That does n't bother me . `` Most of them have been well within bounds , '' Clinton said . `` And they 're harsh but limited criticism ; in other words , they 're not advocating violence or encouraging other people to do it . `` But I just think that we have to be careful , '' the former president added . `` We 've been down this road on more than one occasion before . We do n't want to go down it again . ''
Former president analyzes mood of country now and leading up to U.S. bombing . Anti-government radicals can communicate faster now , he says . We do n't want to go down violent road again , he says . Wolf Blitzer joins Clinton on `` The Situation Room '' the 1990s at 5 p.m . ET on the Democratic Congress .