Call for unity shelved by political barbs
WASHINGTON • It didn’t last.
With the country on edge over a widening pipe-bomb scare, talk of national unity quickly gave way to finger-pointing Thursday. President Donald Trump cast blame on the media for fomenting anger in society while candidates across the country traded partisan broadsides.
Three more devices were found Thursday, bringing to at least 10 the number of pipe bombs and other suspicious packages sent to prominent Democrats and critics of Trump. None exploded, but they dominated the political discourse less than two weeks before midterm elections that could alter the course of Trump’s presidency.
Not even 24 hours after CNN’s New York headquarters was evacuated after receiving one of the devices, Trump lashed out on Twitter against the media.
“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,” Trump wrote.
With that, Trump followed a familiar pattern: In a moment of national trial, he will briefly stick to a message of healing before returning to more divisive rhetoric.
As he did after deadly hurricanes and the racial violence of Charlottesville, Va. Trump stood in the White House on Wednesday and decried the threat of political violence. He largely continued that tone later in the day at a rally in Wisconsin, saying, “We want all sides to come together in peace and harmony,” though he also called on the media to end its “endless hostility.”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called it “disgraceful” to suggest the president bears any responsibility for the packages sent to his opponents. She said Thursday that there’s a big difference between “comments made and actions taken.” She, too, cited the Rep. Steve Scalise shooting.
Asked whether the president intended to tone down his rhetoric, she said the president would “continue to lay out the case in the differences between Democrats and Republicans” ahead of the midterm elections Nov. 6.
People listen as President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Central Wisconsin Airport in Mosinee on Wednesday.
