After a spate of explosive devices targeting progressives and Democratic lawmakers surfaced Wednesday morning, all Donald Trump could muster in the midst of the crisis was a meager three-word tweet.
"I agree wholeheartedly," he wrote, retweeting a statement from Vice President Mike Pence condemning the "cowardly" attacks on the Obamas, Clintons, CNN, and others who received the devices, which were being handled by law enforcement officials.
This was an act of domestic terrorism, plain and simple, and an inherent threat to U.S. national security. All the known targets—Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, CNN contributor and former CIA Director John Brennan, liberal donor George Soros, and former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder—have something in common: they are frequent critics of Trump and also targets of his ire.
But in the midst of a genuine crisis that was intended to stoke fear and further divide America, Trump went mute, choosing to simply stand behind a statement from his vice president.
Trump has devoted his last week of public statements and campaign appearances to ginning up a crisis over a group of several thousand desperate migrants hoping to reach the Southwest border, where they would turn themselves over to U.S. immigration authorities and seek asylum. Since last week, Trump has sent nearly 20 tweets about the "caravan," as he calls it, saying it's full of criminals and Middle Easterners (i.e. terrorists, in his view) even though he has absolutely no proof of this.
Trump has also repeatedly said, with no proof, the Democrats orchestrated the migration. "The Caravans are a disgrace to the Democrat Party," he declared Sunday. On Tuesday, Trump and Pence took questions about the migration from the Oval Office in which Trump admitted he had "no proof" there were Middle Easterners among the group while Pence declared the migration had been "organized by leftist groups."
At the same time, Trump has painted Democrats as a "mob" or used his new motto #JobsNotMobs in more than a dozen tweets over the last week.
"At stake in this Election is whether we continue the extraordinary prosperity we have achieved - or whether we let the Radical Democrat Mob take a giant wrecking ball to our Country and our Economy!" Trump tweeted Monday.
It's currently about 1:40 PM ET and this all started at around 9 AM ET. So nearly five hours into this crisis, Trump has been in hiding. He’s apparently supposed to speak on it around 2 PM.
In the meantime, we've heard from New York officials Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio, among others.
"What we saw here today was an effort to terrorize," de Blasio said at a hastily arranged news conference meant to calm the nerves of New Yorkers. De Blasio said New York officials had no other "credible and specific threats" and urged people to "go about your daily routine."
"There are a few people trying to tear us apart through acts of violence,” explained de Blasio. "It is imperative that we ensure they fail.”
Meanwhile, Trump has spent the last week spewing venom about immigrants and Democrats.