| | | | 'We are at a boiling point' | | On Wednesday, suspected pipe bombs were addressed to former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, CNN's New York headquarters and the office of California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, among others. Those suspicious packages come on the heels of a similar one left near liberal billionaire George Soros' home earlier this week.
We don't know who did this. We don't know why they did this. And we may not know for a while.
Here's what we do know: The recipients of the packages are all prominent targets of right-wing criticism and, in many cases, of President Donald Trump himself.
That doesn't mean Trump is responsible for these packages. Again, we don't know who sent them, much less their motive. But it's absolutely impossible to separate the rhetoric from Trump with the sort of political climate in which these acts of terror happen.
After all, Trump has repeatedly called the media the "enemy of the people." He has, as recently as Monday in Texas, reveled in chants of "CNN sucks" from a campaign crowd. He has suggested the people airing allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh are "evil." He has urged security officials to treat protesters at his rallies roughly. He has attacked Waters, Soros, Clinton, Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton so many times, it's hard to keep track.
In short, Trump didn't create our angry political world. But he's made it angrier -- for his own political benefit.
"There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their attacks on the media," said CNN President Jeff Zucker on Wednesday afternoon. "The president, and especially the White House press secretary, should understand their words matter. Thus far, they have shown no comprehension of that."
"Words matter, particularly when they are spoken by the head of government," added Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a frequent Trump critic, in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo on Wednesday afternoon. "The President shouldn't refer to the press as the enemy of the people. People hear that and they follow it."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, hit the nail on the head in an interview with CNN's Kate Bolduan. "Do I believe the heated rhetoric, the toxic environment is part of this? Yes," he said, adding: "We are at a boiling point."
Trump himself expressed a similar sentiment on Wednesday afternoon at the White House. "I just want to tell you that in these times we have to unify, we have 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," he said at the start of an event focused on the opioid epidemic.
The test for Trump -- as to whether he can make good on his own pledge for unity and a dialing back of political rhetoric for even a single day -- will come tonight when he travels to Wisconsin in hopes of rescuing embattled Republican Gov. Scott Walker. In recent weeks, Trump has hit the campaign trail hard and, everywhere he goes, Trump seems to further escalate his rhetoric against Democrats, the media and anyone else he considers an opponent. (He has also upped the numbers of outright lies he tells.)
The Point: Can Trump follow his own advice in something of an acknowledgement that what he has been saying and doing has inflamed tensions rather than eased them? Or will he revert back to his normal adversarial approach -- today's events notwithstanding?
-- Chris | | "I've discussed that so much. Nobody cares about that."
-- Donald Trump to The Wall Street Journal, on Michael Cohen's allegations that he orchestrated hush payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. | | | MEANWHILE, AT THE WHITE HOUSE | | It's been a self-described "year of action" for the White House in the ongoing battle against opioids.
And today, President Trump signed into law a measure widely supported by both sides of the aisle -- a rare feat in hyperpartisan Washington these days.
The new law includes more than 70 provisions to expand treatment options while helping stop the flow of drugs at the borders, according to the administration. | | | Open Mike Eagle is the best rapper you've never heard of. | | MIDTERMS WATCH: SOUTH DAKOTA EDITION | | For the first time in more than 40 years, a Democrat could be elected governor in ruby red South Dakota.
2018 is revealing competitive races in the unlikeliest of places, and new polling finds the two candidates for governor are head-to-head.
A new poll from Argus Leader/KELO TV found:
45% support for Democrat Billie Sutton
45% support for Republican Kristi Noem
9% undecided
Sutton and Noem are running to replace incumbent Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who is term-limited. | | The caravan of migrants traveling north through Central America is still roughly 1,000 miles from the US-Mexico border, according to CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet. At this rate, they could still be in the middle of Mexico come Election Day on November 6.
Despite that, President Donald Trump has tried to make the caravan -- and issues around illegal immigration -- a key issue in the coming midterm elections.
The caravan was formed in Honduras over a week ago and only crossed the border into Mexico on Friday. | | The closer election day gets, the more Donald Trump lies.
As Chris writes, "In the last five days, the President of the United States had lied about -- among other things -- the caravan, tax cuts, sanctuary cities and voter fraud. That's in addition to the usual panoply of falsehoods included in his stump speech, such as:
a) Democrats want to confiscate guns from law-abiding citizens
b) Liberal billionaire George Soros is paying for protests against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh
c) Kavanaugh was found innocent of sexual assault
d) Democrats are the "party of crime"
e) Kavanaugh was ranked number one in his class at Yale
f) Trump's campaign did very well with women in the 2016 election -- and on and on and on.
Catch up on Trump's absolute cavalcade of falsehoods here. | | 🎃A VERY MAGA HALLOWEEN 🎃 | | President Donald Trump is marking the Halloween holiday with a not-so-spooky visit to Florida for a campaign rally in Fort Myers on October 31.
Trump is campaigning for Republicans up and down the ticket, but specifically gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis and Senate candidate and current Gov. Bill Nelson. There's no October surprise to this stop: This is Trump's 37th campaign event in Florida, according to his campaign.
No word yet on whether Trump will appear in costume. | | | From Brenna: "Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein certainly has something to clap about, after his planned interview with House members was postponed. Ask anyone else on The Point team, I clap like this whenever I get a canceled meeting notification. This newsletter will make your friends clap, so you should share it with them!" | | | | | | |
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