Trump allies didn’t bat an eye when the president accused journalists in a tweet Thursday morning of contributing to “a very big part of the Anger we see today in our society.” | Susan Walsh/AP Photo Bomb Threat GOP sees new bomb scare victim: Trump Many Trump allies say a terroristic attack on Democratic leaders has become a media conspiracy to undermine the president ahead of the November midterms.

A day after several leading Democrats were found to have been targeted by package bombs, Republicans have identified one of their own as a victim: President Donald Trump.

As of Thursday afternoon, less than 36 hours after the first packages were discovered, White House officials and outside advisers bitterly protested the notion that Trump’s vitriolic rhetoric might have inspired whoever sent the packages.


The alleged main offender was a familiar one — the news media, which conservatives insisted had rushed to unfair conclusions in an effort to undermine the president less than two weeks before the midterm elections. The blame-casting came a day after Trump issued an uncharacteristic call for political unity.

“Look, it’s the media’s doing what the media does, which is any narrative that they can twist against Trump, they will do so,” Sen Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

In an interview with POLITICO, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who traveled Wednesday with Vice President Mike Pence on Air Force Two, said past incidents in which Republican politicians were threatened drew far less coverage than this week’s attempted bombings, which have dominated news coverage for two days running.

Playbook PM Sign up for our must-read newsletter on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

“I don’t think the same level of media scrutiny was received as we are seeing today,” Lewandowski said, citing incidents in which letters with white powder (later found to be harmless) were sent to the president’s sons, as well as threats against Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-Maine) during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation fight.

"I think it is absolutely disgraceful that one of the first public statements we heard from CNN yesterday was to put the blame and responsibility of this despicable act on the president and on me personally,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Fox News on Thursday.

She subsequently told reporters that Trump is no more responsible for the attempted bombings than Sen. Bernie Sanders was responsible “for a supporter shooting up a baseball practice field last year,” referring to the June 2017 Alexandria, Va., shooting in which four people, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) were shot.

The coordinated pushback echoes one of Trump’s most frequent reactions to harsh criticism: give no ground and shift the blame to others.

That strategy could benefit Republicans on Election Day next month by rallying Trump’s conservative base against one of its favorite bogeymen, the “fake news” media, which Trump has long insisted is biased against him. Some Trump supporters even accused the media of seeking to change the subject from a caravan of migrants approaching the Mexican border that is considered a winning political theme for Trump.

"So many voters mistrust the media, Trump has found blaming the press an effective political strategy in a variety of contexts," a former Trump White House official told POLITICO.

The fact that one of the package was delivered to the New York offices of CNN did not deter the conservative denunciations of the media. (That package was addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan, possibly as a result of confusion over his role as a commentator for another cable network, MSNBC.)

Nor did an angry statement on Wednesday from CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker, who decried the White House’s “continued attacks on the media.” In Thursday remarks to reporters, Sanders specifically criticized CNN for its coverage of Trump.

Trump allies, who have parroted his past attacks on the news media, didn’t bat an eye when he accused journalists in a tweet Thursday morning of contributing to “a very big part of the Anger we see today in our society.”

American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, a Trump ally, called the string of attempted bombings a “wake-up call for everybody,” but also encouraged Trump to keep exposing the media’s “irresponsible” coverage.

“I think it's part of the irresponsible coverage when I hear members of the media say CNN got this package because of Trump's rhetoric. To equate that with wanting to send bombs is extremely irresponsible,” said Schlapp, whose wife Mercedes is the White House’s director of strategic communications.

Asked if Trump might omit from future rallies his claim that journalists are “the enemy of the people,” Schlapp responded: “I hope not.”

“I think it’s part of the irresponsible coverage when I hear members of the media say CNN got this package because of Trump’s rhetoric,” he said.

But as authorities on Thursday investigated more suspicious packages addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden and film star Robert De Niro, a leading critic of the president, some White House allies wavered on the appropriateness of Trump’s “Fake News” shtick.

“I don’t think he should stop pointing out that the press is biased toward him and the enemy of the people,” said former Fox News host and Trump pal Eric Bolling.

“That said, words do matter, as Jeff Zucker pointed out. And caution should be exercised on both sides,” Bolling added.

The response from Trump and his allies glossed over much of Trump’s divisive rhetoric. In recent years, Trump has said he would pay the legal bills of supporters who roughed up protesters at his rallies, tweeted a video of himself tackling a man with a CNN logo superimposed across his face, and last week made light of a Republican congressman who was convicted of assault for body-slamming a reporter.

Other prominent Democrats who were sent suspicious devices (the viability of the devices remains unclear) include former President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and his wife and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Joe Biden, former Attorney General Eric Holder, the liberal billionaire donor George Soros, actor Robert De Niro and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Ca.). Several of those Democrats have been recent subjects of Trump’s criticism.

Trump previewed a shift in focus to the media’s role in amplifying the attempted bombings during a Wednesday night rally in Wisconsin. “The media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories,” he said to applause.

On Thursday morning, he went further. “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,” he wrote on Twitter. “Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”

Meanwhile, influential figures in Trump’s world have been publicly floating conspiracy theories, citing no evidence, about the episode, including that the person or people responsible for sending the packages were not Trump supporters. Authorities have not yet publicly identified suspects in the incidents.

“Fake News--Fake Bombs,” Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs, who regularly speaks to Trump, tweeted Thursday morning. “Who could possibly benefit by so much fakery?”

Dobbs subsequently deleted the tweet, along with a second tweet asserting that “Fake News has just successfully changed the narrative from the onslaught of illegal immigrants and broken border security to ‘suspicious packages.’”

Over the past 24 hours, former FBI assistant director Chris Swecker has twice claimed on Fox News that the pipe bombs may have come from “someone who is trying to get the Democratic vote out and incur sympathy,” as he put it Wednesday.

Trump’s aides are urging him to resist indulging such theories, however, and to instead stick to talking points about civility and unity. One Republican close to the White House said Trump’s deputy chief of staff for communications Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive, is among those making that case.

Inside the White House, the attempted package bombings were also a reminder of the potential risks that government officials face. The White House’s Management Office sent staffers who work in the Executive Office of the President an email on Thursday explaining how to identify and handle suspicious letters or packages, according to a copy of the email obtained by POLITICO.

Emily Stephenson contributed to this story.