Biden, de Niro targeted as hunt on for bomber
THE two bombs sent to former Vice President Joe Biden and a third to actor Robert de Niro yesterday were similar to the devices intended for several other high-profile Democrats and critics of US President Donald Trump, authorities said.
None of the 10 devices exploded but authorities stepped up a manhunt for the serial bomber amid a contentious campaign season ahead of the November 6 elections in which Trump’s Republicans will try to maintain majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives.
There has been no claim of responsibility.
Leading Democrats called the bombs a dangerous outgrowth of coarsening political rhetoric promoted by Trump, who also condemned the acts but blamed the media, his frequent foil, for much of the angry tone.
Trump and other Republicans have likened Democrats to an “angry mob,” citing protests at the confirmation hearing of US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The bombs discovered on Wednesday were similar to ones sent to Biden and de Niro, a federal official said.
The FBI said yesterday one of the two packages sent to Biden, who once said he would have fought Trump if they were in high school, was discovered at a mail facility in his home state of Delaware and the second at another location.
The device intended for de Niro, who received a loud ovation when he hurled an obscenity at Trump at the Tony Awards, was sent to one of his properties in New York City.
At a Wisconsin rally on Wednesday, Trump, who has denounced news media organizations as an “enemy of the people,” called attention to “how nice I’m behaving tonight” but yesterday he attacked 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. “It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”
All the people who were targeted, including former US President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder, who served as attorney general under Obama, are frequently maligned by right-wing critics.
Act of terrorism
Also sent packages were former CIA Director John Brennan, who had his security clearance withdrawn after frequently lambasting Trump, prominent Democratic Party donor George Soros and California Representative Maxine Waters, another outspoken Trump critic. Two packages were sent to Waters, who Trump has called “an extraordinarily low IQ person.”
Several politicians, including US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, described the package bombs as an act of terrorism. “Someone is trying to intimidate. Someone is trying to quash voices in this country using violence,” De Blasio said. “I am confident that we will find the perpetrator or perpetrators.”
The package sent to CNN, which Trump has frequently derided for its coverage of him, contained an envelope of white powder that experts were analyzing, New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill said.