Late Thursday night, CNN’s New York office was again evacuated after someone from “the south” phoned in a bomb threat to the building. Thankfully, it turned out to have no validity as of this blog's publication. According to CNN host Don Lemon, the timing was “suspicious” because it came mere minutes after President Trump put out a tweet attacking the media. And according to one unhinged CNN analyst, it was just another indicator that America was unmistakably “becoming a battlefield.”
The tweet CNN accused of sparking the bomb threat, said: “FAKE NEWS - THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”
As he was standing in the street outside the building, Lemon was not shy about suggesting the tweet was the cause. “We don't know if it has anything to do with it but certainly after. The tweet came out at 10:08 and at 10:15 there was [inaudible] bomb threat,” he told CNN media reporter Brian Stelter.
Surprisingly, Stelter actually appeared to be the voice of reason. “Just because the President posts hateful speech on Twitter, that should not cause anybody to do anything stupid,” he told Lemon. “CNN, The New York Times, and many other media companies have been targets. For many years.”
But Lemon insisted President Trump had something to do with it. “And again, we don't know, but the timing is obviously suspicious. These are the times that we are living in and we know what the situation was with the last person who did something similar,” he opined.
Stelter seemed to snap at Lemon for continuing to push his baseless claim:
But that's the responsibility of the criminal. That's not the responsibility of anybody else. We should always think about the tone that's put out. The tone that’s created is important. I think it's important to say, people call who call in bomb threats, people who send bombs in the mail as happened in October, that is the responsibility of the criminal. Right now we have no evidence that anything is actually here. This is surely a false alarm. It is a disturbing false alarm.
Over 20 minutes later, Lemon brought on Samantha Vinograd, a former national security official in the Obama administration, to give her own deranged assessment. “Well, the first thing I want to say, Don, is, as I was on my way up here I was struck by the fact the President did tweet minutes before this event happened using language that we know has inflamed violence in the past,” she proclaimed.
According to Vinograd, not only was Trump’s Twitter account a nexus for violent rhetoric, but it was also a national security threat:
And from a national security perspective, it is clear that at least in the President's Twitter feed there is this language that is trigger language for violence that has occurred in the past several weeks. And if you look at the macro picture here, it is very clear that the United States is now really becoming a battleground.
“The number of bomb threats we have in this country is really starting to resemble countries around the world where people aren't comfortable traveling, seconding their children, and going to study,” she added. “And so, at this point, we have to wonder what the risk assessment is for the United States based upon all these bomb threats that we're seeing.”
That’s right, according to CNN, Trump’s using Twitter to turn America into a Third World country. Moments later, the okay signal was given from the NYPD, so the Time Warner building and its surrounding areas were declared safe to enter. The best news in all of this was that everyone was okay. But all told, lashing out at the President before the facts are known does no one any good.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN Tonight
December 6, 2018
11:23:34 p.m. Eastern(…)
DON LEMON: And so there you go. It's kind of a repeat situation of what happened back in October. And these are the times that we're living in where you're having bomb threats, you know, called into media companies and called into offices and disrupting people's lives. This happened shortly after a tweet.
BRIAN STELTER: There was a tweet.
LEMON: We don't know if it has anything to do with it but certainly after. The tweet came out at 10:08 and at 10:15 there was [inaudible] bomb threat.
STELTER: And I sure hope that has nothing to do with this, Don.
LEMON: Absolutely.
STELTER: Just because the President posts hateful speech on Twitter, that should not cause anybody to do anything stupid. Obviously, we're in the real world here. CNN, The New York Times, and many other media companies have been targets. For many years. And the targeting of those outlets has been increased in the past.
[Crosstalk]
LEMON: The timing is suspicious. We don't know.
STELTER: The assumption here is that this is bogus.
LEMON: Right.
(…)
LEMON: And again, we don't know but the timing is obviously suspicious. These are the times that we are living in and we know what the situation was with the last person who did something similar. [Inaudible] actually sent pipe bombs.
STELTER: But that's the responsibility of the criminal. That's not the responsibility of anybody else. We should always think about the tone that's put out. The tone that’s created is important. I think it's important to say, people call who call in bomb threats, people who send bombs in the mail as happened in October, that is the responsibility of the criminal. Right now we have no evidence that anything is actually here. This is surely a false alarm. It is a disturbing false alarm.
(…)
11:39:51 p.m. Eastern
LEMON: I want to bring in Samantha, can you get closer. This Samantha Vinograd who’s on our air and talks about these issues and has expertise in security. Samantha, talk to us, what is going on here?
SAMANTHA VINOGRAD: Well, the first thing I want to say, Don, is, as I was on my way up here I was struck by the fact the President did tweet minutes before this event happened using language that we know has inflamed violence in the past.
And from a national security perspective, it is clear that at least in the President's Twitter feed there is this language that is trigger language for violence that has occurred in the past several weeks. And if you look at the macro picture here, it is very clear that the United States is now really becoming a battleground.
The number of bomb threats we have in this country is really starting to resemble countries around the world where people aren't comfortable traveling, seconding their children, and going to study. And so, at this point we have to wonder what the risk assessment is for the United States based upon all these bomb threats that we're seeing.
LEMON: Samantha, again, I just want to reiterate, the timing is suspicious. But you don't believe in coincidences? [Inaudible]
VINOGRAD: I know that the President's tweets before and his language before have led past perpetrators of violence to target Americans. Whether it be CNN, past government officials, or otherwise. So, while this tweet itself may not be directly linked to the bomb threat, we can't rule it out at this point.
LEMON: Samantha Vinograd often joins us to take about issues of security and has expertise in—you severed under the—
VINOGRAD: I served under the Obama administration.
(…)
