Just before President Trump was scheduled to deliver remarks for Turning Point USA’s black leadership summit at the White House Friday, law enforcement officials announced an arrest in the investigation of bombs sent by mail or courier to prominent Democrats and Trump critics. In a tweet before his remarks, he said he’d address the bomb investigation at the event.
Mr. Trump, who condemned political acts of violence from the same room earlier this week, had taken a more heated approach on Twitter, blasting the media for how it has covered his response to the saga.
“Funny how lowly rated CNN, and others, can criticize me at will, even blaming me for the current spate of Bombs and ridiculously comparing this to September 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing, yet when I criticize them they go wild and scream, ‘it’s just not Presidential!'”
Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit group focused on educating high school and college-aged students, has become particularly known for sometimes inflammatory comments made by two of its leaders, Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens.
Owens, for instances, was one of a handful of far-right figures who suggested, without evidence, that the explosives were fake and set up by “leftists.”
“The only thing ‘suspicious’ about these packages, is their timing,” she said Wednesday in a tweet that has since been deleted. “Caravans, fake bomb threats, leftists are going ALL OUT for midterms.”
But Mr. Trump himself suggested the “‘bomb stuff” was distracting from the midterms.
“Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this “Bomb” stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows – news not talking politics. Very unfortunate, what is going on. Republicans, go out and vote!” the president tweeted Friday morning.
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