New York: President Donald Trump on Thursday blamed the news media for the division and anger in the United States, as authorities discovered more pipe bombs intended for the president's political rivals.
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| US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Wisconsin |
Trump had called the night before for national unity in response to pipe bombs directed at some of his favourite targets, but soon after said the "Mainstream Media," which he called "Fake News," was at fault for the anger because of its "false and inaccurate reporting."
He wrote: "A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!"
In his tweet on Thursday, Trump did not mention that CNN, the news network that he has long assailed and called "fake news," was among the targets of a pipe bomb, along with former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro.
Trump's posture as a leader working to bring the country together — saying on Wednesday that any attempted terrorist act "against any American is an attack on every American"— was brief.
Senator Chris Murphy, pointed to the president's tweet on Thursday morning as motivation for Democrats to vote in the coming midterm elections.
Murphy wrote: "Rise up, America.
The President of the United States is now blaming the attempted murder of Democrats on press criticism of him.
I didn't think his narcissism could sink to this ugly of a place. But it has. And now we need to vote."
The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, defended her boss on Thursday in remarks to Fox News. "The president, I think, could not have been more presidential yesterday when he spoke," she said.
Republicans and Democrats were quick to blame each other.
Some prominent conservative commentators and defenders of Trump speculated that the Democrats were to blame, asserting that unnamed liberals sent the packages as part of a plot to make Republicans look bad.
Rush Limbaugh, the popular radio host, raised the question of whether the pipe bombs were part of a hoax from Democratic operatives and Hillary Clinton.
"It is the Democratic Party that's home to all of these mobs," Limbaugh said.
Some liberal commentators posited that the bomb scares were a product of the president's verbal threats.
"There had been this pretty generic brewing narrative of left-wing violence, and those are the entities that got targeted," said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters for America, a liberal group that critiques conservative news media.
Sanders, however, implored people to focus on "the person who made and sent these packages."
"Let's not get lost in who is responsible for this heinous act," she said.
Law enforcement officials have shown photographs of some of the packages that contained the pipe bombs. The packages discovered on Thursday were similar to the packages intercepted the day before.
Packages sent to Biden and De Niro were discovered Thursday. A law enforcement official said it appeared to be from the same sender of packages to Obama; Clinton; John O. Brennan, the former CIA director; and Representative Maxine Waters — four of the president's favourite political punching bags. Another device intended for Obama's attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., was incorrectly addressed.
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| An officer keeps watch in front of the Time Warner Building, where NYPD personnel removed an explosive device on Wednesday in New York. |
De Niro found himself in the president's cross hairs after he gave a speech in June at an awards ceremony in which he called the president a "fool," a "baby" and the "baby in chief." Trump hit back on Twitter and said De Niro was "a very Low IQ individual."
The package intended for Biden was intercepted at a US postal facility in Delaware, his home state.
Biden has been campaigning for Democrats for midterm elections, now just weeks away. Earlier this month, Biden said Trump was "trashing American values the way he talks about people, the way he makes fun of people, the way he denigrates folks."
The package intended for Brennan was sent to CNN, even though Brennan is a paid commentator for MSNBC, not CNN.
Brennan scolded the president in a Twitter post on Thursday, telling him to "stop blaming others."
Brennan wrote: "Stop blaming others. Look in the mirror. Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, & encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful. Clean up your act....try to act Presidential. The American people deserve much better. BTW, your critics will not be intimidated into silence."
Brennan has been an outspoken critic of Trump's, making pointed remarks that ultimately led to the president stripping him of his security clearance. The return address on the package sent to CNN was that of Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a former Democratic National Committee chairwoman.
Trump has called for the Justice Department to investigate Wasserman Schultz over the theft of internal DNC emails, a narrative that has found traction among some right-wing conspiracy theorists.
After the discovery of packages sent to Obama and Clinton — which were found during routine mail screening by the Secret Service — a package addressed to Waters was intercepted at a congressional mail facility.
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| An officer with the Uniform Division of the United States Secret Service uses his dog to search a checkpoint near the home of President Barack Obama. |
Trump has drawn excitement from crowds of supporters when would sling verbal insults at "Crazy Maxine Waters," and call her the leader of the Democratic Party. Trump has also said Waters had a "very low IQ."
Clinton, the president's one-time political opponent, has been a consistent target for Trump and the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump's rallies erupted into "lock her up" chants, which have made a comeback two years later, even though Clinton is a private citizen and not running for any office.
Earlier this month, Holder, a Democrat, said of Republicans and Democrats, "When they go low, we kick them."
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