Trump decries violence but calls on media to end ‘hostility’

Associated Press

MOSINEE, Wis.

President Donald 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.

Trump’s pleas for harmony came as law-enforcement officials scrambled to find the perpetrator of the thwarted bomb attacks against former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, CNN and others. The scripted message was a dissonant one for the president, who has repeatedly blasted his political opponents as criminals and argued that they will destroy the country if they win control of Congress in the midterms.

“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?”

Law-enforcement authorities have ascribed no motive to the crime. Still, it has prompted immediate debate over whether increasingly personal and hard-edged rhetoric has contributed to a potentially dangerous political climate. Trump critics have blamed him for the tone.

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.

He added: “The media also has a responsibly 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.” He has also denounced his political enemies in deeply personal terms and even described those who tried to thwart his second Supreme Court nominee as “evil.”

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.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump pledged to put an “extremely big dent” in the scourge of drug addiction in America as he signed legislation intended to help tackle the opioid crisis, the deadliest epidemic of overdoses in the country’s history.

Nearly 48,000 people died last year from overdoses involving opioids. Overall, U.S. drug overdose deaths have started to level off, but Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says it’s too soon to declare victory.

The legislation will add treatment options and get the U.S. Postal Service to screen overseas packages for a synthetic form of opioids called fentanyl that are being shipped largely from China.