Do You Think the Bomber Was Spurred by Divisive Politics?

What’s the story?

• Cesar Altieri Sayoc, the Florida man arrested in connection with the mail-bomb scare targeting critics of the president, is a registered Republican whose white van was plastered with pro-Trump stickers—and Sayoc’s twitter accounts are turgid with right-wing conspiracy theories and footage of him attending MAGA rallies.

• The packages were addressed to former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Joe Biden, liberal philanthropist George Soros, former Attorney General Eric Holder, former CIA Director John Brennan, California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, and CNN—all critics of Trump, and all criticized by Trump.
• While Sayoc apparently held strong right-wing beliefs, not everyone who attends political rallies and peppers their social media feeds with conspiracy theories later mails bombs to critics of the president.
• But as Politico summarized, “Critics of the president have cast blame for the flurry of suspected pipe bombs on Trump's incendiary rhetoric directed against the media and his political opponents, suggesting that it could have encouraged someone to target the president's opponents.”
• Trump pushed back against this reading on Thursday, placing "a very big part" of the blame for the "Anger we see today in our society" on the news media and its "Fake News" reporting.

• Do you think the bomber was spurred by divisive politics?

What is Trump saying today?

• The president praised law enforcement officials for their quick apprehension of Sayoc, while also decrying the use of “political violence.”

"We must never allow political violence to take root in America. We cannot let it happen. And I am committed to doing everything in my power as president to stop it. And to stop it now."

• This was a markedly different tone from earlier in the day (pre-arrest), when Trump suggested the packages were designed to suppress Republican turnout in the midterms.

• As USA Today explained, “The tweet appeared to give credence to the ‘false flag’ conspiracy theory that the suspicious packages mailed to prominent Democrats and CNN were actually an effort to portray conservatives as violent. Trump offered no evidence to support the claim.”

What do you think?

Have our politics gotten more divisive? Was the alleged bomber motivated by political divide? How can we combat it? Take action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman