After Suspicious Packages, Trump Urges Civility While Blaming 'Fake News' Media
The list of prominent people, eight and counting, who were sent suspicious packages reads like a Trump enemies list, politicians and Trump critics who are often targeted in his rally speeches and tweets.
Just Monday night at a rally in Texas, Trump's criticism of Hillary Clinton prompted the now-familiar chants of "lock her up." He told the crowd Congresswoman Maxine Waters, is a "low-IQ individual." A week ago, at a rally in Montana, Trump imagined a fight with former Vice President Joe Biden. "He'd be down so fast," Trump said to laughter as part of a riff in which he praised a Republican congressman for body slamming a reporter.
Suspected pipe bombs have been sent to all three of them, and at least five others, all of whom have criticized Trump and been criticized by him. None of the devices have exploded.
At a campaign rally Wednesday night, Trump started by delivering a statement about the ongoing investigation, "any acts or threats of political violence are an attack on our democracy itself," Trump said, calling for people on "all sides" to come together in peace and harmony.'
The references to Clinton, Waters, Biden and others were gone from Trump's speech.
"Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective," Trump said, possibly referring to his critics rather than himself.
The tone was subdued by the standards of a Trump rally. He mostly stuck to the script and delivered a speech that could just as easily have been in the East Room of the White House rather than an aircraft hangar in a part of Wisconsin that is Trump county. And the president was transparent about what he was trying to do.
"Do you see how nice I'm behaving tonight," Trump said. "We're all behaving very well, and hopefully we can keep it that way, right?"
Not even 24 hours later, Trump was back to his old self on twitter, seeming to blame the media for what is happening. "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," he wrote.
Holding court on the driveway outside the West Wing, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders elaborated, saying media coverage of Trump is 90 percent negative and while he condemns violence he feels "everyone has a role to play."
Sanders specifically called out CNN, which had to evacuate its New York studios yesterday after one of the specific packages showed up in the network's mail room. It was addressed to former CIA director John Brennan, who has been a vocal Trump critic. Brennan responded to Trump's tweet telling him to stop blaming others and look in the mirror.
"Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, & encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful," Brennan wrote. "Clean up your act....try to act Presidential. The American people deserve much better. BTW, your critics will not be intimidated into silence."
It is not yet known who is behind the packages or what their political leanings may be.
Sanders told reporters there's a big difference between insulting his critics and taking action. Trump is no more responsible for the suspicious packages, she said, than Bernie Sanders was for a supporter of his opening fire on the congressional baseball practice last year. [Copyright 2018 NPR]
