List of package bomb recipients keeps growing

Authorities continue to intercept crude pipe-bomb devices in packages sent to liberal politicians and supporters. Law enforcement seized three suspicious packages Thursday morning, one meant for actor Robert De Niro and two intended for former Vice President Joe Biden. Law enforcement officials also said they recovered two packages addressed to U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., on Wednesday.

The attacker or attackers also sent packages this week to former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former CIA Director John Brennan (at CNN’s New York offices), former Attorney General Eric Holder, and liberal billionaire George Soros, the FBI confirmed Wednesday.

So far, no one has been hurt by the contents found in the packages, several of which were intercepted by routine security procedures before reaching their intended targets. The devices appeared to come from the same person or persons and were sent to an FBI lab for analysis, said John Miller, the New York Police Department’s head of intelligence and counterterrorism. The FBI said the devices arrived in similar manila envelopes with a bubble-wrap interior, computer-printed address labels that included misspelled names and places, and six Forever stamps. The perpetrator used the address of the Florida office of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., as the return address. The package sent to Holder was incorrectly addressed and was intercepted when it arrived at Wasserman Schultz’s office.

The targeting of liberal politicians and supporters has ignited a debate about the tone and tenor of political rhetoric in the United States. Critics of President Donald Trump blamed him for inflaming political passion to the point of potential violence. “Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, & encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful. Clean up your act. … try to act Presidential,” Brennan tweeted in response to Trump. The White House revoked Brennan’s security clearance this summer. Trump, the White House, and other Republican leaders condemned the intended violence and called for increased political cooperation. “Let’s get along,” the president said at a rally Wednesday in Wisconsin. “By the way, do you see how nice I’m behaving tonight? Have you ever seen this?”

In a tweet Thursday morning, Trump blamed some journalists for perpetuating the culture of division: “A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”