On Wednesday morning, law enforcement and the Secret Service intercepted several suspicious packages intended for some high-ranking current and former Democratic officials. Former President Barack Obama, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), former Attorney General Eric Holder and Democrat investor George Soros were among the targeted. Another suspicious package was also addressed to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The Time Warner Center in Manhattan, home to CNN’s New York Bureau, was evacuated after authorities discovered a box containing a bomb addressed to former CIA director John Brennan. The devices appeared to be pipe bombs, according to Bryan Paarmann, the FBI special agent in charge of the counterterrorism division in New York.
Eerily enough, a law enforcement official told CNN that the bomb sent to Brennan was constructed similarly to the ones mailed to the Obamas and Clintons. The device delivered to Brennan was delivered via courier, according to law officials.
The series of discovered pipe bombs addressed to public officials continued into the afternoon, forcing Americans to think and wonder, “What have we become?”.
Primarily, it seems as if somebody attempted to assassinate several of President Trump’s perceived political enemies and critics. This may be horrifying and shocking to some, but this isn’t surprising, personally. There are consequences when the president calls journalists the enemy of the people, and sadly, violence is one of them.
Although Trump and the White House may collectively condemn the attempted attacks, it doesn’t change the president’s long track record of dehumanizing his political rivals and demonizing the press.
Last week, CNN Opinion writer Samuel G. Freedman tweeted, “President Trump’s demonization of the media can have deadly consequences.” And unfortunately, he was spot on.
We can sit and pretend that CNN was randomly targeted. We can ignore the numerous times Trump has called their reporting “fake” and “lies,” which would consequently make them a target for his die-hard fans. Back in January, a Michigan man was arrested for making calls to CNN, threatening the staff. In August, C-SPAN reported that a caller had made explicit threats of gun violence on-air to CNN reporters Don Lemon and Brian Stelter.
However, in his defense, Trump isn’t the only guilty party here. Radical conservative pundits have undoubtedly played a role in convincing Trump’s base that CNN is full of evil people who lie about the president because they can.
As we speak, Breitbart’s articles regarding today’s events solely revolve around CNN retracting a story while criticizing House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for not being satisfied with Trump’s condemnation.
Right-wing commentators and personalities like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, both popular among Trump supporters, have demonized Democrats and CNN particularly since Trump’s inauguration.
In July 2017, Limbaugh declared on his radio show that Trump was “the end of CNN.” On another episode he claimed that CNN has become a laughing stock and “doesn’t even know it.” Furthermore, it is extremely unsettling that some conservatives are using terms like “unstable”, “evil,” “deranged” or “a mob” to describe liberals and Democrats in news articles and political ads.
Despite today’s attacks on Democrats and the press, Trump still fails to realize and accept the fact that words aren’t simply wind, and that they carry water and even hate. In a speech today, the president talked about unity,which is quite interesting considering he has done nothing but promote the contrary since he announced his candidacy for president. He’ll now probably go on with his tweets and rhetoric while his serfs continue to take in his words — even carrying them out.
Suad Patton-Bey is a senior journalism and Arabic major from Oxford.
