On Thursday, former Vice President Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro became the latest prominent figures who have had homemade pipe bombs sent to them. So far, the targets of the bombing campaign include billionaire philanthropist George Soros, former President Barack Obama, Former President Hillary Clinton, former CIA director Joseph Brennan, former Attorney General Eric Holder, congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and congresswoman Maxine Waters.
All were sent roughly similar packages. The one to Brennan was misaddressed to CNN (Brennan is a commentator on MSNBC). The package to Holder had Schultz’s address as a return label, so it ended up in her office.
All the targets are critics of President Donald Trump, sometimes vocal ones. Except for Brennan, they are also all Democrats.
President Donald Trump tweeted this morning:
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. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2018
Posted in the wake of CNN having to evacuate its New York offices after one of the bombs was sent to them, this tweet seems to be blaming the victims for their situation.
The president was not the only one who had a strange reaction to the unfolding news. Respected Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker tweeted:
Once again the press gets gamed, giving saturation coverage and agonized commentary to a minor event. It's not major news that a country of 325m has a few malicious jerks who (correctly) anticipate 15 minutes of notoriety with a vindictive stunt. https://t.co/zXnBJXCqdB
— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) October 25, 2018
As the journalist Lindsey Beyerstein noted, its hard to deny the news-worthiness of a wave of political violence on the eve of an election:
This is a coordinated series of attempted bombings of Democratic luminaries seemingly timed to influence the midterm elections. This is terrorism. https://t.co/fYVVH5p8S2
— Lindsay BeyerSCREAM 🎃 (@Beyerstein) October 25, 2018