President Donald Trump called on the nation to "come together in peace and harmony" Wednesday night as authorities investigate more than a half dozen explosive devices mailed to high-profile Democrats in recent days.
Trump traveled to Mosinee, Wisconsin, for a rally and opened his speech in a somber and serious tone to address the package bombs sent to former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former CIA director John Brennan, former Attorney General Eric Holder, and billionaire Democrat donor George Soros. Wednesday evening, it was reported two similar packages addressed to Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., were also discovered.
"Any acts or threats of political violence are an attack on our democracy itself," Trump said. "No nation can succeed that tolerates violence or the threat of violence as a method of political intimidation, coercion, or control.
"Such conduct must be fiercely opposed and firmly prosecuted. We want all sides to come together in peace and harmony. We can do it. . . . It will happen."
Trump then urged people in politics to tone down their rhetoric when it comes to speaking about their opponents.
"The language of moral condemnation and destructive routine, these are arguments and disagreements that have to stop," Trump said. "No one should carelessly compare political opponents to historical villains, which is done often.
"We should not mob people in public spaces or destroy public property. There is one way to settle our disagreements. It's called peacefully at the ballot box."
The bomb addressed to Brennan was sent to CNN, although he is actually an MSNBC contributor.
During CNN's live broadcast of Trump's speech, anchor Anderson Cooper interjected and accused Trump of being a hypocrite, given that he often uses divisive rhetoric against the media and his political opponents.
"The president speaking in Wisconsin, speaking quite hypocritically, I just have to say," Cooper said. "He talked about explosive devices being sent to former government officials. He made no mention of an explosive device sent to this building behind me, the headquarters of CNN.
"A news organization he routinely attacks. He calls reporters the enemy of the American people. And, yet, he said it's the media's fault for the kind of reporting that media organizations have been doing."
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