De Niro the latest bomb target
Actor joins list of Trump critics who have been sent explosive packages
New York City police removed a suspected mail bomb from a Tribeca restaurant owned by actor Robert De Niro, who has been a frequent critic of President Donald Trump.
New York City police removed a suspected mail bomb from a Tribeca restaurant owned by actor Robert De Niro, who has been a frequent critic of President Donald Trump.
And the FBI investigated another suspicious package in a Delaware postal facility, which CBS reported was addressed to Barack Obama’s vice-president, Joe Biden.
Law enforcement agencies are investigating apparent explosive devices addressed to frequent targets of conservative
and Trumpian vitriol, including Obama and Hillary Clinton and cable news network CNN. The FBI warned more such parcels may be in circulation.
New York City police received a call shortly after 4am on Thursday reporting a suspicious package and responded to the Tribeca Grill restaurant owned by De Niro, a New York police department official said. The package was removed and transported to an bomb squad facility in the Bronx.
It was addressed to De Niro personally and contained the same type of explosive device found on Wednesday in the Time Warner Center, where CNN is located, a person familiar with the incident said.
“The packages are similar in appearance” and “contain potentially destructive devices”, the FBI said in a statement, warning that “it is possible that additional packages were mailed to other locations”.
The FBI described the packages as manila envelopes with bubble wrap inside and with a return address from “Debbie Wasserman Shultz”, a misspelling of the Democratic House member from Florida. Each package had computer-printed address labels and six “Forever” stamps, the FBI said.
“It appears that an individual or individuals sent out multiple similar packages,” John Miller, the deputy New York City police commissioner for counterterrorism, told reporters in Manhattan, where Time Warner Center was evacuated after a suspicious package was found at CNN’s headquarters.
He said the devices appeared to be pipe bombs.
Those targeted were a virtual litany of Trump’s favourite subjects of criticism in tweets and at rallies, from his “lock her up” slogan for Clinton to his denunciation of CNN as “fake news.”
De Niro, the star of Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Analyze This and many other movies, has been an outspoken Trump critic. He denounced the president with obscenities at the Tony Awards in June, prompting Trump, while on his way back from the summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore, to call the actor “a very low IQ individual”.
But the president joined political leaders of both parties in denouncing the threatened violence on Wednesday, which comes just ahead of the November 6 congressional elections.
“Acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the USA,” Trump said at the White House. “The full weight of our government is being deployed” in the investigation and “we will get to the bottom of it”, he said.
The attacks began on Monday when police “proactively detonated” a pipe-bomb found at a residence in New York’s suburbs owned by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who is often portrayed by conservatives as a secretive bankroller of liberal causes.
On Wednesday morning, the Secret Service confirmed it had intercepted suspicious packages addressed to former president Obama in Washington and to Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, who lives in Chappaqua, a suburb about 65km north of New York City.
“The packages were immediately identified during routine mail screening procedures as potential explosive devices and were appropriately handled as such,” the Secret Service said in an e-mailed statement.
“The protectees did not receive the packages nor were they at risk of receiving them.”
The FBI said the package sent to CNN was addressed to former CIA director John Brennan, care of the cable network.
The FBI said that a suspicious package was also mailed to former attorney-general Eric Holder but was rerouted to the return address in Florida.
Clinton told an audience in Florida on Wednesday that she is “fine” thanks to the Secret Service’s interception of the package addressed to her but “as an American I’m worried”.
“It is a troubling time, isn’t it?” Clinton said.
“And it’s a time of deep divisions and we have to do everything we can to bring our country together.”
Republican legislators also tweeted condemnation of the intended attacks.
CNN president Jeff Zucker said that the White House needs to take its words more seriously. “There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media,” he said.
The Secret Service takes special measures to screen the mail of the public figures it protects. Each piece of mail undergoes screening before delivery for potential hazardous substances or devices, according to the department of homeland security.