WASHINGTON -- Investigators searched coast to coast Thursday for clues to the motives behind a mail-bomb plot apparently aimed at critics of the president, analyzing the mechanics of the crude devices to reveal whether they were intended to detonate or simply sow fear two weeks before Election Day.
Three more devices were linked to the plot -- two addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden and one to actor Robert De Niro -- bringing the total to 10. Authorities warned there might well be more.
Law enforcement officials said the devices, containing timers and batteries, were not rigged like a booby-trapped package bomb that would explode upon opening. But the officials were still uncertain whether the devices were poorly designed or never intended to cause physical harm. A search of a postal database suggested at least some of packages may have been mailed from Florida, one official said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation by name.
New details about the devices came as the four-day mail-bomb scare spread nationwide, drawing investigators from dozens of federal, state and local agencies in the effort to identify one or more culprits.
The targets have included former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, CNN and Rep. Maxine Waters of California.
All of the 10 packages discovered since Monday bore return addresses from Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democratic congressman from Florida.
At a news conference Thursday, officials in New York would not discuss possible motives, or details on how the packages found their way into the U.S. postal system. Nor would they say why none of the packages had detonated, but they stressed they were still treating them as "live devices."
"As far as a hoax device, we're not treating it that way," said New York Police Commissioner James O'Neill.
Much was still unanswered about the devices, and authorities offered no clues about any suspects. Details suggested only a broad pattern -- that the items were packaged in manila envelopes, addressed to prominent Trump critics and carried U.S. postage stamps. The devices were being examined by technicians at the FBI's forensic lab in Quantico, Va.
At the briefing, authorities confirmed that at least some of the packages were distributed through the U.S. mail, and cautioned that there could be additional devices in the postal system. They said investigators searching for more suspicious parcels had not found any during the previous eight hours.
Separately, Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., received a death threat on social media, his office said Thursday.
U.S. Capitol Police were "immediately notified and quickly identified the individual responsible," Curbelo's office said in a statement. A Capitol Police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
TOXIC POLITICAL CLIMATE
The packages stoked nationwide tensions and fears as voters prepared to vote Nov. 6 to determine partisan control of Congress -- a campaign both parties have described in perilous terms. Even with the sender still unknown, politicians from both parties used the moment to decry a toxic political climate and lay blame.
Asked during a stop in North Little Rock on Thursday if angry political rhetoric, especially by Trump, could be blamed for the suspicious packages, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said that whoever sent the packages bears the responsibility.
Trump has been criticized for inflammatory tweets and rally speeches in which he has insulted political rivals and called the national media "the enemy of the people" and "fake news."
"I would say the person who put those suspicious packages in the mail has responsibility," Cotton said, also mentioning that House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., was seriously wounded by a shooter a year ago during a congressional baseball practice. "Violence is never a suitable way to achieve our political ends, in this society or in any civilized society.
"I think ultimately who's responsible is the person who put those packages in the mail, and we don't know who it is," Cotton said. "Hopefully, the FBI will find them very quickly and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law and they'll go away to prison for a very long time."
Trump condemned the attempted attacks Wednesday, urging everyone to "come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America." And while he reiterated his message of unity again at a rally Wednesday night, he placed the responsibility in part on the media.
"The media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories," he said. "Have to do it. They've got to stop. Bring people together."
Trump also took aim at the media on Thursday.
"A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News," Trump said on Twitter. "It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!"
Former CIA Director John Brennan, the target of a package sent to CNN, fired back Thursday.
"Stop blaming others. Look in the mirror," Brennan tweeted. "Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, & encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful. Clean up your act....try to act Presidential."
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., also condemned the president's tweet.
"Rise up, America," he said on Twitter. "The President of the United States is now blaming the attempted murder of Democrats on press criticism of him. I didn't think his narcissism could sink to this ugly of a place. But it has."
During an interview Thursday morning on Fox News, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders stressed that Trump has condemned the bombing attempts and said that he "could not have been more presidential" in addressing the crisis Wednesday.
Asked by a Fox News host if Trump could go "the extra mile" to foster more civil political discourse, Sanders said: "Look, the president did exactly that last night."
She argued that Trump has an obligation as president to point out differences in policy between the two major political parties.
"There is a major political, philosophical difference between Democrats and Republicans, and there's nothing wrong with pointing those differences out," Sanders said. "There is something wrong with taking that to a point of violence."
JOURNALISTS SPEAK OUT
Meanwhile, more than 200 journalists condemned Trump's "sustained pattern" of attacks on the free press in an open letter dated Thursday, describing his behavior as "un-American and utterly unlawful and unseemly for the President of the United States and leader of the free world."
"Trump's condoning of political violence is part of a sustained pattern of attack on a free press -- which includes labeling any reportage he doesn't like as 'fake news' and barring reporters and news organizations whom he wishes to punish from press briefings and events," said the letter from 211 journalists as of early Thursday, the vast majority of whom are retired or semiretired.
Meredith Wheeler, a former ABC News producer in the 1970s and '80s, organized the dozens of journalists, who are mostly former ABC staff members, to sign the open letter. She said more have continued to sign on to the letter since she first released it.
Wheeler said she was inspired to write it after Trump recently appeared to condone the May 2017 assault of the Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs by Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont. Trump's comments, made at a Montana political rally Oct. 18, came during continued worldwide anger over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
"Any guy who can do a body slam, he's my kind of -- he's my guy," Trump said at the rally to cheers, referring to Gianforte's assault.
"To hear him praise the Montana congressman in the wake of Khashoggi's killing was just too much, too awful, too soon, and I thought we have to, as a group of journalists, stand up and protest this," Wheeler said. "Of course, the trouble is working journalists can't sign a document like this. That's why it's mainly people who are retired or teaching in journalism."
In the letter, she and the former journalists say that Trump's behavior and rhetoric have amounted to a violation of the First Amendment. The journalists voiced support for a lawsuit recently filed against the president by PEN America, which describes "official acts" Trump has taken against news outlets that the suit claims amount to an attempt to stifle criticism, in violation of the First Amendment.
PEN America alleges Trump has threatened to interfere in the planned merger between AT&T and Time Warner, CNN's parent company, "because he objects to [CNN's] coverage of him." PEN also points to actions Trump has taken targeting Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, specifically his personal plea to the U.S. postmaster to raise postal rates for Amazon.
"One of the pillars of a free and open democracy is a vibrant free press," the letter said. "At his inauguration the President of the United States swears to protect the U.S. Constitution, including the First Amendment. This President is utterly failing to do so and actively working not simply to undermine the press, but to incite violence against it as well."
Anne Garrels, a retired ABC News and NPR correspondent who is now on the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said that the committee has grown deeply concerned about attacks on journalists by the president in recent years.
"We can't stand silently while this goes on," she said. "I feel very strongly about Trump's attitude toward the press. It's dangerous, it's destructive, and it's not what presidents do. The more we speak out, I think, the better."
Information for this article was contributed by Michael Balsamo, Colleen Long and Zeke Miller of The Associated Press; by William K. Rashbaum, Alan Feuer and Adam Goldman of The New York Times; by John Wagner, Josh Dawsey, Felicia Sonmez and Meagan Flynn of The Washington Post; by Jennifer Epstein, Henry Goldman, Terrence Dopp, Christian Berthelsen, Toluse Olorunnipa, Billy House and Chris Strohm of Bloomberg News; and by Jake Sandlin of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 10/26/2018