Critiques Condemn President Trump’s Apparent Levity in Dealing with Attempted Bombings



An alarming number of pipe bombs have been sent recently in the mail to many vocal opponents of President Donald Trump. CBC News reports that at least 10 mail bombs were delivered to addresses in these states linked to: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, actor Robert De Niro, the CNN headquarters and California member of Congress Maxine Waters. Some were intercepted by the Secret Service and fortunately, none exploded.

This recent wave of violence has been blamed on President Trumps unchecked utterances which many see as able to inspire violence. President Trump has since made conscious attempts to assume a more restrained tone following the disturbing news. "See how nice I'm behaving?" Trump had said recently to supporters in Wisconsin.

While fellow Republicans say Trump’s response to the bombings was professional and blame Democrats and the media for the tense political climate. Others have criticised the president's apparent levity in dealing with important issue at hand.

Veteran Democratic Strategist Hank Sheinkopf said the president's seemingflippancy in dealing with one of the largest plots in modern U.S. history to potentially harm prominent officials won't go unnoticed in key states such asFlorida, New York and California, where high-profile terrorist attacks and massacres are still embedded in voters' minds ahead of the midterms.

"Nobody wants to see anybody get blown up. Especially after 9/11 in New York," Sheinkopf said, "New York, Florida, L.A., you're talking about places that have experienced an extraordinary level of violence. This provides more impetus for suburban women who are significantly alienated from the president to feel more motivated to vote."

Sheinkopfis of the opinion that the president needs to adopt a less aggressive and more conciliatory approach to handling the issue. "It's the smart political thing to do," he said. "A tragedy is nonpartisan."

Jason Levin, a Democratic strategist with Cerrell Associates in Los Angeles weighs in on the issue as quoted in the report, "We've seen incredible acts of violence here in Southern California, in San Bernardino, and really around the country. The political violence we've seen, and these pipe bombs, underlines how far we've come from established political norms."

"When you're thinking about Democratic turnout in the midterms, political violence will seek to motivate voters who are deeply uncomfortable with the departure we've seen with those norms."

Recently, President Trump has taken to blaming the media for the way things have degenerated and appeared to be joking about his efforts to improve on his outbursts, “Have you ever seen this? We're all behaving very well!" he had said, drawing laughs from his supporters.

Michael Cornfield, a George Washington University associate professor who studies presidential rhetoric, said the president was once more putting on a show, "He does this kind of stuff when he reads from a teleprompter or reads from a piece of paper, and does it in an in-joke voice. Like, 'They're making me do this. You people in the audience know I'd rather not, but they're making me do this.'"


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