WASHINGTON \u2014 All week long, supporters of President Donald Trump played defense as each day brought new reports of more pipe bombs sent to prominent critics of the president. Some suggested the mai\u2026<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON \u2014 All week long, supporters of President Donald Trump played defense as each day brought new reports of more pipe bombs sent to prominent critics of the president. Some suggested the mailings could be a \u201cfalse flag\u201d operation aimed at ginning up Democratic enthusiasm. Trump himself complained \u201cthis \u2018Bomb\u2019 stuff\u201d was distracting from the upcoming midterm elections.
Then came Friday\u2019s arrest of a Trump supporter in Florida as the prime suspect.
Republicans from Trump on down scrambled to draw a firm line between the alleged actions of 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc and the president.
\u201cThere\u2019s no blame. There\u2019s no anything,\u201d Trump insisted, batting away any suggestion that his harsh rhetoric, sometimes casually endorsing violence, played any role.
As for the message sent by his own words, Trump was unapologetic: \u201cI think I\u2019ve toned it down. I could really tone it up.\u201d
Conservatives joined the defensive chorus, pointing, as Trump did, to the 2017 shooting of Republican Rep. Steve Scalise and others by a supporter of Democrat Bernie Sanders. No politician should be blamed for the violent tendencies of a supporter, they argued.
Matthew Schlapp, chair of the American Conservative Union, tweeted that the \u201cFBI tried to \u2018stop\u2019 Trump. Obama pushed Russian collusion. CNN never stops attacking him. Maxine & co want him in jail. But he is at fault?!\u201d
Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President George W. Bush, admonished Trump for some of his harsh rhetoric and said \u201cthis is a time for the president to focus 100 percent on lifting the nation up and 0 percent on the political ramifications.\u201d
But Fleischer also said he expected \u201cthe Democrats and the press to fall back into their pattern of rushing to blame President Trump. And that\u2019s not right.\u201d
Jim McGrath, spokesman for former President George H. W. Bush tweeted: \u201cPeople need to get a life. Both sides have their crazies as @SteveScalise can attest.\u201d
As he has done in other times of crisis, Trump on Friday delivered carefully worded remarks that denounced the hateful actions, declaring that \u201cthese terrorizing acts are despicable and have no place in our country.\u201d
\u201cI\u2019ve instructed authorities to spare no resource or expense in finding those responsible and bringing them to swift and certain justice,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe must never allow political violence to take root in America, cannot let it happen. And I am committed to doing everything in my power as president to stop it and to stop it now. Stop it now.\u201d
But those remarks came a short time after he tweeted a complaint that the media\u2019s focus on bombs was distracting from the midterms.
\u201cRepublicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this \u201cBomb\u201d stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows \u2013 news not talking politics,\u201d Trump tweeted in the hours before Sayoc was taken into custody. \u201cVery unfortunate, what is going on. Republicans, go out and vote!\u201d
At a campaign rally Friday night in North Carolina, Trump resumed the attack, accusing the media of using the pipe bomb incident to \u201cscore political points\u201d against him and the GOP. The pro-Trump crowd broke into boos when and there were loud chants of \u201cCNN sucks.\u201d
Trump\u2019s tweet was an effort to refocus attention on the midterms that could alter the path of his presidency. His quote marks around \u201cBomb\u201d were striking, suggesting the president might doubt the authenticity of the scare. That theory had gained steam in some quarters on the right.
A number of Trump\u2019s allies, including his eldest son, Donald Jr., and conservative commentator Lou Dobbs, have used social media to promote the idea that the bombs may be a Democrat-run hoax. Rush Limbaugh, influential right-wing radio host, and some GOP congressional candidates did the same. And the president\u2019s favorite television show, Fox & Friends, ran a segment Friday morning in the hours before his tweet that raised the possibility that the bombs were a ploy to help Democrats.
After Sayoc was revealed to be a Trump supporter, a number of conservatives were quick to absolve the president of blame for contributing to the hyper-partisan atmosphere.
And even during the scare, Trump did not abandon his politics of grievance.
He issued a 3 a.m. tweet Friday in which he complained that CNN and others were blaming him for the panic, saying they were \u201cridiculously comparing this to September 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing, yet when I criticize them they go wild and scream, \u2018it\u2019s just not Presidential!’\u201d One of the explosives packages was sent to CNN, forcing an evacuation of their Manhattan studios.
At the White House, just moments after saluting Sayoc\u2019s arrest, Trump told cheering members of the 2018 Young Black Leadership Summit that \u201cCome to think of it, who gets attacked more than me? I can do the greatest thing for our country and on the networks\u2026 it will show bad. No matter what.\u201d
Some in the crowd began to yell \u201cFake News,\u201d a staple at any Trump rally, while one person shouted \u201cCNN Sucks!\u201d After Trump mentioned globalism, there was a jeer about George Soros, the liberal donor who was the target of one of the pipe bombs.
Trump also complained that coverage of the manhunt distracted from his announcement Thursday about an effort to lower prescription drug prices. Trump said the announcement \u201cwas competing with this story\u201d about the pipe bombs.
He added that with apprehension of the suspect, \u201cmaybe that can start to disappear rapidly because we don\u2019t like those stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

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