Madman in Florida mails pipe bombs but Trump gets the blame

US President Donald Trump, tweet, October 24:

You know what I am, I’m a nationalist, OK? I’m a nationalist.

ABC Washington bureau chief Zoe Daniel, October 26:

We know President Donald Trump can be fast and loose with language. Did he mean that he’s a patriot without understanding the implications of the word nationalist? Or was he deliberately amping the extreme right portion of his base ahead of midterm elections in less than a fortnight? My read, having been to a lot of Trump rallies, is that the President frequently says inflammatory things for political reasons. Ditto, bending the truth. I doubt he’d deny it if you asked him. “This egregious conduct is abhorrent to everything we hold dear and sacred as Americans,” Trump says. “We’re extremely angry … unhappy about what we witnessed this morning, and we will get to the bottom of it.”

The Hollywood Reporter quotes CNN chief Jeff Zucker, October 26:

There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their con­tinued attacks on the media. The President, and especially the White House press secretary, should ­understand their words matter. Thus far, they have shown no comprehension of that.

Daily Beast, October 25:

Actor turned cartoonist Jim Carrey is trying to place the blame for the wave of attempted bombings … squarely on Donald Trump. In his latest piece of political satire, Carrey has posted a cartoon on Twitter of Trump’s mouth wrapped around a pipe bomb.

In case his meaning isn’t clear, Carrey writes to his followers:

Today they tried to murder two presidents as well as public servants and journalists. Make no mistake, these terrorists were encouraged and ­emboldened by the hate speech of Donald Trump. If you can’t see the clear menace of this man’s influence by now then you are a part of it.

The Guardian, October 25:

Donald Trump said political figures “must stop treating political opponents as morally defective” as he condemned the attempted bombings of prominent liberals this week. But his own language towards the targets of the bombs has been unusually coarse for a modern US president … he went on to blame the media for incivility — but he failed to acknowledge his own rhetoric. On Thursday, he stood by those comments. Trump tweeted: “It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream media must clean up its act, fast.”

Washington Times, October 25:

Democrats and the media swiftly blamed Mr Trump for stirring up public anger against those top liberals, saying his constant mocking tweets and barbs at campaign rallies likely prompted an unstable person to mail the devices.

Miranda Devine, The Sunday Telegraph, yesterday:

Even before anyone was arrested for sending homemade pipe bombs … an angry Green parrot from Down Under tried to drag us into the ugliness. Greens leader Richard Di ­Natale decided to make political mileage out of the bomb drama by attacking Donald Trump and smearing Coalition politicians. “When you’ve got the President of the United States who uses the sort of inflammatory language he does, who essentially preaches violence, this is a man who’s giving licence to people on the fringes of society. Australia is not immune. We’ve got politicians who are out there race-baiting.”