Donald Trump accuses media of being the ‘enemy’ after Synagogue shooting and bomb plot that targeted CNN
- President attributes the ‘great anger’ in the US partly to inaccurate reporting
US President Donald Trump on Monday accused the media of being “the true Enemy of People” in the wake of both a mass shooting and a mail bomb plot that targeted news station CNN, among others.
Trump tweeted: “There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news.” He added that the media “must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly”.
The president’s comments follow a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 dead and a mail bomb scare targeting Democrats and CNN. The election season violence rattled a deeply divided nation and prompted questions about whether Trump should tone done his rhetoric.
Trump strongly condemned the Pittsburgh attack as an act of anti-Semitism, and has denounced political violence and called for unity. But with eight days to go before the midterm elections, he has continued to hold his political rallies, complete with harsh criticism of Democrats and the media.
At a rally on Saturday night, Trump was somewhat muted, but still offered his standard campaign attack lines, including citing Hillary Clinton and Representative Maxine Waters, both of whom were targeted in the bomb plot. On Twitter on Sunday, he savaged billionaire businessman Tom Steyer, another target of the mail bombs.
The man arrested in connection with the mail bomb plot, Cesar Sayoc, was a fervent Trump supporter.