Trump Criticizes the Media as Pipe Bombs Target Democrats and CNN
President Trump on Thursday blamed the news media for the division and anger in the United States, as the authorities discovered more pipe bombs intended for the president’s political rivals.
Mr. Trump had called the night before for national unity in response to pipe bombs directed at some of his favorite 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.”
Mr. 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, Democrat of Connecticut, pointed to the president’s tweet on Thursday morning as motivation for Democrats to vote in the coming midterm elections.
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 Mr. 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,” Mr. 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.
Ms. 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 Thursday were similar to the packages intercepted the day before.
Packages sent to Mr. Biden and Mr. De Niro were discovered Thursday. A law enforcement official said it appeared to be from the same sender of packages to Mr. Obama; Mrs. Clinton; John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director; and Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California — four of the president’s favorite political punching bags. Another device intended for Mr. Obama’s attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., was incorrectly addressed.
Mr. 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.” Mr. Trump hit back on Twitter and said Mr. De Niro was “a very Low IQ individual.”
The package intended for Mr. Biden was intercepted at a United States postal facility in Delaware, his home state.
Mr. Biden has been campaigning for Democrats for midterm elections, now just weeks away. Earlier this month, Mr. Biden said Mr. 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 Mr. Brennan was sent to CNN, even though Mr. Brennan is a paid commentator for MSNBC, not CNN.
Mr. Brennan scolded the president in a Twitter post on Thursday, telling him to “stop blaming others.”
Mr. Brennan has been an outspoken critic of Mr. 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 Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat of Florida and a former Democratic National Committee chairwoman.
Mr. Trump has called for the Justice Department to investigate Ms. Wasserman Schultz over the theft of internal Democratic National Committee emails, a narrative that has found traction among some right-wing conspiracy theorists.
After the discovery of packages sent to Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton — which were found during routine mail screening by the Secret Service — a package addressed to Ms. Waters was intercepted at a congressional mail facility.
Mr. 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. Mr. Trump has also said Ms. Waters had a “very low I.Q.”
Mrs. Clinton, the president’s one-time political opponent, has been a consistent target for Mr. Trump and the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump’s rallies erupted into “lock her up” chants, which have made a comeback two years later, even though Mrs. Clinton is a private citizen and not running for any office.
Earlier this month, Mr. Holder, a Democrat, said of Republicans and Democrats, “When they go low, we kick them.”