MOSINEE, Wis. —President Trump decried the threat of political violence and called on the media to end its “hostility” Wednesday, hours after authorities intercepted bombs sent to a news network and prominent Democrats who have been the targets of some of his sharpest barbs.
“We want all sides to come together in peace and harmony,” he said at a campaign rally in Wisconsin. “Any acts or threats of political violence are an attack on our democracy itself.”
The president noted the unusually subdued tone of his remarks.
“By the way, do you see how nice I’m behaving tonight?” he said. “Have you ever seen this?”
The president did not take any responsibility.
Those “engaged in the political arena” must “stop treating political opponents as being morally defective,” he said. He also referenced high-profile incidents in which conservatives have been accosted in restaurants and public spaces by political critics.
PRESIDENT CALLS FOR UNITY
He added: “The media also has a responsibilty to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories.”
Trump has frequently labeled stories he doesn’t like as “fake news” and many reporters as “enemies of the people.”
Trump spoke to thousands of supporters in a central Wisconsin rally as he looked to boost struggling Republican candidates less than two weeks out from the midterm elections. He visited the tiny city of Mosinee, which has a population of 4,000. He won that part of the state by double digits in 2016.
Earlier in Washington, Trump took a more bipartisan tone, calling for unity and urging the nation to come together and send “one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America.”
“We’re extremely angry, upset, unhappy about what we witnessed this morning, and we will get to the bottom of it,” said Trump, who has sometimes struggled to show empathy at moments of national sorrow.
‘REPREHENSIBLE ACTS’
Congressional Republicans also condemned the suspicious devices.
House Speaker Paul Ryan denounced the “reprehensible acts” as an “attempt to terrorize public figures.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called it “domestic terrorism.”
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is facing a fierce challenge from Democrat Beto O’Rourke, tweeted that “violence is never OK” and said the reports were “deeply, deeply disturbing. America is better than this.”
Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who was severely wounded in a 2017 shooting that targeted Republican members of Congress on a suburban baseball field, wrote on Twitter that he had experienced “first-hand the effects of political violence” and said that as a nation “we must agree that this is a dangerous path and it cannot become the new normal.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
