Democrats accused President Trump of being partially responsible for a series of suspicious packages containing explosive devices that were mailed to high-profile Democrats this week, saying he has encouraged physical violence in the past.
“Time and time again,” a joint statement from House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said, “the President has condoned physical violence and divided Americans with his words and his actions: expressing support for the Congressman who body-slammed a reporter, the neo-Nazis who killed a young woman in Charlottesville, his supporters at rallies who get violent with protestors, dictators around the world who murder their own citizens, and referring to the free press as the enemy of the people.”
This week, packages with potentially explosive devices were sent to Bill and Hillary Clinton, billionaire Democratic donor George Soros, former vice president Joe Biden, former president Obama, CNN’s Manhattan offices, actor and Trump critic Robert De Niro, and multiple Democratic members of Congress. All the packages were intercepted and no one was hurt.
Democratic House candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who made waves when she ousted veteran New York congressman Joe Crowley in a June primary, blamed the GOP for encouraging violent behavior.
When the right increasingly mischaracterizes nonviolent civil disobedience as “violence,” they provoke actual, targeted attempts to harm others.
After relentless GOP conspiracy theorizing, someone attempted to bomb a man who survived Nazi occupation today.https://t.co/bv0NBjChr6
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 23, 2018
Senator Richard Blumenthal called the attempted attacks “a classic instance of political intimidation inciting fear.”
“If the president is really serious about leading and unifying, he knows what not to say, what not to do,” the Connecticut Democrat said on MSNBC.
Representative Maxine Waters, who was the intended target of one of the packages, responded with defiance, saying she “ain’t scared,” and that Trump “in his own way really does promote a lot of violence.”
“I think the president of the United States has been dog-whistling to his constituency, making them believe that their problems are caused by those people over there,” the California congresswoman said. “And I think they are acting in a way that they think the president wants them to do and the way he wants them to act.”
New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand said she believes the president has “been divisive and really put hate into the climate,” when asked about the bomb scares during a Thursday debate with her Republican opponent.