On Wednesday, someone tried to assassinate much of the senior leadership of one of the two major American political parties. A person or persons sent pipe bombs addressed to former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder, and former Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. These were among, with the addition of Robert de Niro Thursday morning, 10 intended victims.

The list of targets reads like a who's who of right-wing boogeymen. These are people continually demonized on conservative media, and by the president. Add in Maxine Waters and George Soros, and you've got a ghastly version of Bingo.

All of that also applies to CNN, which was sent a package—addressed to former CIA director and Trump critic John Brennan—that led to the evacuation of Manhattan's Time Warner Center, where the news network is headquartered. This was an attempted attack on the media organization the president most often criticizes in apocalyptic terms—as not just Fake News, but as an Enemy of the People. By the next morning, this was the president's stance:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

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

Here is the President of the United States slandering "Mainstream Media" as chop shops that purposely publish false reporting, the day after one of those organizations, which he attacks constantly and by name, was targeted with a pipe bomb. It feels necessary here to point out that legitimate news organizations, a group that includes CNN, do not, as a rule, knowingly publish false information. But it's expected that the president would lie and smear, because he does so constantly. And no one ever expected him to maintain, at least for very long, the calmer approach he adopted at a press conference immediately after the attacks yesterday:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

WATCH: President Trump: "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." pic.twitter.com/K2VRDwVlBZ — MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 24, 2018

Notice Trump only mentioned the attacks on "former government officials"—not a major media organization. Otherwise, the statement was standard, the least you might expect from a president in this situation. He read it from the teleprompter, without any particular feeling, and you couldn't help but feel normal service would soon resume.

At a rally last night—an explicitly partisan event with which the president chose to go ahead in the circumstances—Trump again tried to strike a more conciliatory tone. He even congratulated himself for doing so. But he also targeted the media again, demanding that it "set a civil tone, and stop the endless hostility and constant negative, and often times false, attacks."

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Trump begins by trying to play unifier-in-chief.



"Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective... We should not mob people in public spaces or destroy public property."



But he then attacks the media for "false attacks." pic.twitter.com/8f4YUEFIrW — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 25, 2018

This is simply amazing. Again, someone tried to bomb CNN earlier that day. And now the person who unleashes more invective against the media in general and CNN in particular than anyone else in public life is demanding civility from those who were just physically attacked. The number one dispenser of false information in our society is demanding others stop their "false attacks." It's enough to make you wonder whether Donald Trump, American president, is capable of taking responsibility for anything at all.

After all, the president is not merely the most "uncivil" figure in our politics, whose viciousness and blatant disregard for the truth have trickled down to permeate all of our discourse. In this homestretch of the 2018 midterms in particular, it is Donald Trump who is ratcheting up the rhetoric to dangerous new levels:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Trump's lies and fear-mongering have reached a new, terrifying level ahead of the midterms pic.twitter.com/4zCgUe2aSu — NowThis (@nowthisnews) October 25, 2018

This is reality. This is what's happening. The president is banging on about how his political opponents want to allow hordes of faceless criminal brown people to pour into the country through the southern border, and continually suggests the Mainstream Media is aiding and abetting that effort. He has categorized not just CNN and other media outlets, but Democrats, too, as enemies of the state. He has been doing so for some time, but as the election approaches and Republicans' prospects—particularly in the House—have not improved, the president and his allies have turned to a loud and sprawling campaign of outright propaganda.

Police gather outside CNN headquarters at New York’s Time Warner Center. Spencer Platt Getty Images

And all the while, he pretends that continually casting his political opponents and the free press as enemies of the American people who are endangering you and your family has no effect on his supporters or the wider political system. He pretends he is not contributing to this "atmosphere" of increasingly violent hostility, even as he embraces political violence from the podium, praising an ally for physically assaulting a reporter. A proto-brownshirt group supporting him went on a violent spree in the streets of New York less than two weeks ago. And a little over a year ago, white supremacists chanting his name marched through the streets of an American city armed with sticks and shields and guns—until one of them allegedly rammed his car through a crowd and murdered counter-protester Heather Heyer. James Fields will go on trial for first-degree murder next month.

Until the president takes responsibility for what he has wrought and starts working to deescalate things, it is hard to see how things will improve. There is no question that Donald Trump is fomenting much of the dangerous chaos in our politics. If you needed proof, just check out the behavior of his biggest supporters yesterday:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Tonight: Trump crowd chants "lock her up" after bomb mailed to Hillary Clinton pic.twitter.com/X4ZiqONhH3 — The Beat with Ari Melber on MSNBC 📺 (@TheBeatWithAri) October 24, 2018

"Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating opponents as morally defective," Trump said from the podium last night. But a couple hours before he even got there, his supporters were chanting "Lock Her Up!" in reference to Hillary Clinton, whom someone had tried to assassinate just hours before. Do you demand someone be "locked up" if you're not convinced they're "morally defective"? It's absurd. Trump has been blasting Clinton as a morally defective criminal for years. The timing of this chant, however, is enough to make you wonder how the crowd might have reacted if the attempt against Clinton was not foiled by security personnel.

Trump also attacked The New York Times this morning over a story documenting the president's almost comical idiocy when it comes to the security of his communications. He did not offer any evidence disputing the facts of the Times story, because he has none. Donald Trump is not known for gathering evidence and marshaling it to make his point—including when he attacks, say, CNN. He just says things, loudly and angrily. Evidently, that the president is saying it is enough for many people in this country to believe it.

SAUL LOEB Getty Images

There is no reason to believe Trump will stop these attacks, or the avalanche of lies that has dominated his midterm strategy. He produced perhaps the most brazen lie in modern political history this week about which party supports protecting coverage for pre-existing conditions. He and his allies have spread blatant propaganda about The Caravan, and immigration in general, in an attempt to scare their base of older white Americans to the ballot box. He made up a coming tax cut from whole cloth, for which his advisers are scrambling to come up with some phony explanation. It is a campaign strategy overwhelmingly governed by deception and fear.

When the president lies, members of the media—including at CNN—must continue to call it out for what it is, even if he won't condemn physical attacks against them in the way he laments attacks against former government officials or, of course, Our Uncivil Atmosphere. This is the reality now. These are frightening times, but fear cannot govern a free society. It is the duty of the free press to ensure the truth does.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io