Reporters gather outside the Tribeca Film Center, where a package with a pipe bomb was sent to actor Robert De Niro.
NEW YORK — President Trump on Thursday blamed the news media for the division and anger in the United States, as authorities discovered more pipe bombs intended for the president’s political rivals.
In his tweet on Thursday, Trump did not mention that CNN, the news network that he has long assailed and called “fake news,” was among the targets of a pipe bomb, along with former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro. Three more devices were found in Delaware and New York, the FBI said Thursday. Two were addressed to Biden, a Delaware resident, and a third to De Niro, who lives and works in Lower Manhattan.
Trump’s posture as a leader working to bring the country together — saying on Wednesday that any attempted terrorist act “against any American is an attack on every American” — was brief.
The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, defended her boss on Thursday in remarks to Fox News. “The president, I think, could not have been more presidential yesterday when he spoke,” she said.
Meanwhile, federal authorities have turned their attention toward southern Florida, believing that a number of the explosive devices were mailed from the area, two people briefed on the matter said Thursday.
Investigators are now focusing on Florida because an analysis of information collected by the U.S. Postal Service indicated that many of the packages were mailed from the state.
Eileen Sullivan, Katie Rogers, William K. Rashbaum, Alan Feuer and Adam Goldman are New York Times writers.