‘They Have Got to Stop’
President Donald Trump Wednesday evening took no responsibility for his very personal attacks on top Democrats who were targets of assassination attempts just hours earlier. He did, however, call on the media to “to set a civil tone and stop the endless hostility,” and to stop what he called “negative” and “false” attacks.
The media accurately reporting his remarks is not a “negative” or “false” attack.
“The media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories,” Trump told a Wisconsin audience at a campaign rally to bolster Republicans running for re-election. “They have to do it. They have to do it. They have got to stop. Bring people together. We are just 13 days away from a very, very important election, it is an election of monumental, if you look at it, monumental importance.”
All those targeted Wednesday were on the president’s hit list, many being the recipients of some of his most vitriolic, unyielding, and frequent attacks.
Minutes before the president took to the stage the crowd was caught chanting “lock her up,” a staple of Trump rallies, referring to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who was one of the top Democrats to be sent a live pipe bomb.
“Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective,” the president did say, reading from a script and sounding as if he had been forced to make the statement under duress.
“The language of moral condemnation and destructive routine, these are arguments and disagreements that have to stop, no one should carelessly compare political opponents to historical villains,” Trump added.
Earlier Wednesday, two former Democratic Presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton; a former US Secretary of State and former US senator, Hillary Clinton; a former US Attorney General, Eric Holder; a former CIA Director, John Brennan; two sitting US Congresswomen, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Maxine Waters; and a top news organization, CNN, all were sent pipe bombs.
These were attempted assassinations, attempts at mass murder, and acts of terrorism.
It’s unclear how many, but some or all were operational, had explosive materials inside, and could have exploded.