Nonprofit pro-journalism organization warns Trump: Continued attacks on the press are 'reckless and dangerous'
- The Committee to Protect Journalists warned President Donald Trump about his constant criticism of the media as a bomb scare gripped the nation.
- After police a suspect, Cesar Sayoc, Jr. of Plantation, Florida, they found evidence suggesting that Trump's rhetoric toward the media may have influenced his actions.
- Police seized a van linked to Sayoc that displayed several pro-Trump stickers, including one that said, "CNN sucks."
- Trump insists that the thwarted bomb attacks were not his fault, and accused the media on Friday of being biased with its coverage of the bomb scare, calling it ploy to "score political points" ahead of the November midterm election.
The Committee to Protect Journalists urged President Donald Trump on Friday not to keep attacking the media as the country reels from a bomb scare the gripped the nation this week.
"It would be reckless and dangerous for President Trump to continue his rhetorical assaults on the press and branding of journalists as enemies of the people after this spate of package bombs aimed at political figures and CNN," The Committee to Protect Journalists' Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney said in a statement on Friday.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit origination based in New York, committed to defending "the rights of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal," its website says.
Police arrested the bombing suspect, Cesar Sayoc. Jr., on Friday morning in Plantation, Florida. They found evidence suggesting that Trump's rhetoric toward the media may have influenced his actions.
Police seized a van linked to Sayoc that displayed several pro-Trump stickers, including one that said, "CNN sucks."
Sayoc has been charged with mailing more than a dozen package bombs to several high-profile Democrats, including former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama, both of whom Trump has criticized publicly.
Trump on Friday acknowledged that Sayoc was one of his supporters, but rebuffed the notion that his rhetoric toward the media is to blame for the thwarted bombings.
"There is no blame. There's no anything," Trump told reporters outside the White House Friday before leaving for a political rally in North Carolina.
When asked if he would take a softer stance toward the media amid the recent bomb threats, Trump replied, "I think I've been toned down. You know, I could really tone it up."
Such was the case at Trump's North Carolina rally Friday night, where the president blasted the media over its coverage of the bomb scare, CNN reported Friday.
Trump leaned into his assertion that the media was biased and said that their portrayal of Sayoc as staunch Trump supporter was a way to "score political points" against him and other Republicans ahead of November's midterm elections.