Despite the fact that journalists are linking Donald Trump to Wednesday’s attempted mail bombing and placing blame on his supporters, CNN on Thursday rather bizarrely denied doing just that. Inside Politics host John King lectured, “No one is blaming the President. Is anyone blaming the President?”
King complained, “The President now wants to make this about him. Amen to the President for what he first said yesterday. ‘Let's take a breath and everybody tone it down. Let the investigators do their job. We can all be better.’ But then it’s our fault. Why?”
No one is blaming the President? Really? On Wednesday night, CNN’s Anderson Cooper insisted that Trump doesn’t see the intended victims of these mail bombs as “human beings.” The cable channel aired, as breaking news, the words of Democrat Andrew Cuomo calling the attacks “red versus blue terrorism.” (Andrew Cuomo, of course, is the governor of New York and the brother of CNN host Chris Cuomo.)
On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Thursday, John Heilemann declared that the “most plausible” scenario is that a Trump supporter sent the bombs. On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough blamed Trump and his “anti-Semitic overtones” for the bomb mailed to George Soros.
So journalists aren't placing blame for this attempted bombing? Sure sounds like it.
A partial transcript of the Inside Politics segment is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Inside Politics
10/25/18
12:19
JOHN KING: No one is blaming the President. Is anyone blaming the President? The President now wants to make this about him. Amen to the President for what he first said yesterday. “Let's take a breath and everybody tone it down. Let the investigators do their job. We can all be better.” But then it’s our fault. Why?
ABBY PHILLIP: For this president, everything comes back to him and how he thinks he is being perceived, how he thinks he is being attacked or if he feels like he is under siege. And, as always with him, the media is the culprit. The media is responsible for him being treated poorly in the public sphere. So, this is really no different.
...
RACHEL BADE (Congressional reporter, Politico): It's interesting because of course he played no role in this, but you have to look at the greater context that he has created in Washington in attacking the media. And you have to wonder if that has contributed to what happened yesterday. I mean, the President is popular with the base because he speaks frankly and he goes after and mocks his enemies and people like that about him. but there is a line. It's one thing to be critical of your enemy. It’s another to say that the media is the enemy of the people, that we are intentionally making up false stories.
