In further developments in the United States, authorities have discovered suspicious packages sent to former Vice President Jo Biden and actor-activist Robert De Niro – both fierce critics of current President Donald Trump.
This follows a week in which several prominent democrats and media house CNN were targeted with similar devices, bringing to nine the number of devices that have been intercepted by law enforcement authorities, including the Secret Service that blocked devices sent to former President Barack Obama in Washington and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at her home in upstate New York.
A suspicious package sent to former VP Joe Biden was found in a mail facility in New Castle County, Delaware. A similar package was safely removed by the NYPD from Robert De Niro’s Manhattan, New York offices.
The actor has been a consistent critic of the current administration and received a loud ovation at the Tony Awards last June when he hurled an obscenity at the sitting President.
Leaders on both sides of the political divide, including President Trump have condemned these acts of domestic terror as a symptom of divisive political rhetoric less than two weeks before the mid-term elections.
“Any acts of threats of political violence are an attack on our democracy itself. No nation can succeed that tolerates violence, or the threat of violence as a method of political intimidation, coercion or control. We all know that. Such conduct must be fiercely opposed and firmly prosecuted. We want all sides to come together in peace and harmony. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it.”
Trump, in a tweet, later blamed the mainstream media for the anger in society, but took no responsibility for his personal invective, which has seen him consistently calling media practitioners the “enemy of the people”, describing them as “bad” or “evil”.
“As part of a larger national effort to bridge our divides and bring people together, 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. Have to do it. Have to do it.”
The package sent to CNN’s headquarters in New York leading to the Time Warner Centre’s evacuation for hours on Wednesday was addressed to former CIA Director in the Obama administration John Brennan who called on the President to rethink his approach.
“Unfortunately, I think you know, Donald Trump has not helped to encourage the type of civil discourse and engagement, public engagement, and his rhetoric too frequently, I think, fuels these feelings and sentiments that now are bleeding over into potentially acts of violence. So, I’m hoping that this is going to make it clear to him, that what he has done heretofore as far as a lot of this rhetoric, really is counterproductive. It is un-American. It is what a president should not be doing. What he said today is what the president should be doing, but follow up on those words with actions and with his future comments. I’m hoping that maybe this is a turning point,” Brennan explains.
A Federal investigation led by the FBI is now working to connect the dots on the source the packages sent across the country, Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“FBI, ATF are working on this and I want to thank all of our law enforcement officers. And, dealing with explosive devices just points out, again, the courage our officers display because, certainly, I would be worried, indeed, to have to handle something that could be as dangerous as this. Across the administration, we condemn the actions that led to these activities in the strongest possible terms and are determined to make sure that we get to the bottom of it and justice is done.”
The good news is that none of the devices sent across this country have harmed anyone so far and it’s not entirely clear whether they would have detonated at all. Authorities are trying to establish if this was the work of one or several people but the packages do appear to be from the same sender.
