President Trump early Friday morning lashed out at the media, accusing them of “blaming” him for the series of bombs and suspicious packages sent to prominent Democrats.
In a 3 a.m. tweet, Trump hit “lowly rated CNN” days after its New York newsroom was evacuated.
{mosads}“Funny how lowly rated CNN, and others, can criticize me at will, even blaming me for the current spate of Bombs and ridiculously comparing this to September 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing, yet when I criticize them they go wild and scream, ‘it’s just not Presidential!’” Trump tweeted.
A suspicious package was delivered Wednesday to the CNN mailroom addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan, a frequent Trump critic who works as a senior national intelligence analyst for NBC and MSNBC.
It was one of several bombs and suspicious packages addressed to prominent Democrats that were seized this week, including packages addressed to former President Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).
All of the targets have been frequent targets of Trump attacks. He regularly attacks CNN and rips the cable network as “fake news.”
CNN President Jeff Zucker lashed out at Trump and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in the wake of the bomb scare for their sustained attacks toward the press.
Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale on Wednesday apologized for an email the campaign sent earlier in the day criticizing CNN.
The email, sent after CNN was evacuated, slammed the network and featured a “media accountability survey,” which purported to help fight “fake news’ attacks” and “bias against hardworking Americans.”
Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and senior adviser to his reelection campaign, signed the email.
Parscale said in a statement to CNN that the email “unfortunately was a pre-programmed, automated message that was not caught before the news broke.”
“We apologize for this,” he added. “We in no way condone violence against anyone who works for CNN, or anyone else.”
Trump and first lady Melania Trump also condemned the packages ahead of a planned bill signing at the White House on Wednesday.
“I just want to tell you that in these times, we have to unify. We have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America,” President Trump said.
“We are extremely angry, upset, unhappy about what we witnessed this morning and we will get to the bottom of it,” he added.
The president, however, then accused the media and his opponents for the current political climate.
“Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective,” he said. “The language of moral condemnation and destructive routines, these are arguments and disagreements that have to stop.”
Less than 24 hours after the pipe bombs were discovered, calls for unity on handling the issue seemed to have disappeared, with Democrats and Republicans pointing fingers at each other for creating the political climate that has taken a violent turn.