Advertisement

'I think he relishes the fear': Internet divided on who to blame for inciting U.S. violence

Megan DeLaire
Protesters hold signs reading “Fake News” and “Fake Prez.” (Photos from William West/AFP/Getty Images and Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call))
Protesters hold signs reading “Fake News” and “Fake Prez.” (Photos from William West/AFP/Getty Images and Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call))

Not a full day after the FBI announced pipe bombs had been delivered – or intercepted en route — to prominent Democrats, critics of Donald Trump and a media outlet, the U.S. President published a tweet blaming news media for inciting societal anger.

According to the FBI, 14 packages containing the bombs were addressed to former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CNN, Robert DeNiro and several others.

They were all discovered between Oct. 22 and 26. Cesar Sayoc, a 56-year-old Trump supporter from Florida, faces five federal charges and could spend up to 48 years in prison if he is convicted.

On Oct. 27, a day after Sayoc’s arrest, a 46-year-old white man named Robert Gregory Bowers allegedly entered Tree of Life jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during Shabbat morning services, shouted “All Jews must die!” and opened fire on the congregants. Eleven people died and six were injured.

The Anti-Defamation League has called the shooting the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in U.S. history.

Two days later, Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway implied during an appearance on Fox News that late-night comedians and their “anti-religious” sentiments are to blame for the attack.


“The anti-religiosity in this country that is somehow in vogue and funny to make fun of anybody of faith, to constantly be making fun of people that express religion — the late-night comedians, the unfunny people on TV shows — it’s always anti-religious,” Conway said.

“These people were gunned down in their place of worship, as were the people in South Carolina several years ago,” she added in reference to the nine people killed at a Charleston church in 2015, although those victims were black worshippers slain by a self-identified, unrepentant white supremacist who admitted to trying to incite a race war.

Despite the Trump administration’s assertions that “fake” news media and late-night TV hosts are to blame for the anger that drives people to commit violent acts, a fresh wave of comments blaming Trump flooded Twitter in the wake of October’s bomb attacks and synagogue shooting.


Comedians, journalists and regular Twitter users have accused Trump of emboldening some of his support base to commit violence against his critics and political enemies by promoting violence against them in his own speeches.

As recently as Oct. 18, Trump praised congressman Greg Gianforte’s 2017 attack on a reporter, saying that “any guy who can do a body slam, he is my type!”

He has also encouraged his supporters to use physical force against protesters who disrupt his rallies.

At an event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in February 2016, he told audience members he would pay their legal fees if they attacked protesters.

“If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you?” he asked the crowd. “I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise.”

Weeks after that incident, Trump said he had directed his staff to look into paying legal fees for a man who assaulted a protester at a rally in North Carolina on March 9.

On Oct. 25 political cartoon by Halifax Chronicle Herald cartoonist Bruce MacKinnon depicted the explosive affect a call to violent action by the U.S. President can have.

The image shows Trump in the act of touching the lit end of a cigar labelled “rhetoric” to the fuse of a bundle of dynamite.

Here are some political cartoons and Tweets that draw a connection between Trump’s public statements and violent hate crimes in the U.S.

Trump’s defenders and those who feel mainstream media are to blame for violence have had their say in the aftermath of the mail bomb and synagogue attacks. Some argue that media don’t assign the same coverage to stories of leftist violence as to violence perpetrated by right-wing extremists.

Others claimed that past administrations were equally as responsible for inciting violence.

What do you think? Are politicians or journalists more likely to inspire violence? Who is to blame for creating the environment in which the latest attacks in the U.S. took place?