White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday slammed CNN President Jeff Zucker for blaming the suspicious packages sent to the network and several public figures on President Trump—and herself.
She said on Twitter that while Trump asked Americans to unify, Zucker “chose to attack and divide.”
When pressed by a CNN reporter at the White House whether Trump “regrets” his statements about the media and his political opponents, Sanders replied, “The very first thing the President did was come out and condemn the violence. The very first thing your network did was come out and accuse the president of being responsible for it. That is not OK.”
“The President is certainly not responsible for sending suspicious packages to someone no more than Bernie Sanders was responsible for a supporter of his shooting up a Republican baseball field practice last year,” she said. “The idea that this is at the hands of the president is absolutely ridiculous.”
Sanders said that Trump will continue to point out "the differences between Democrats and Republicans." She added that Trump has condemned violence “in all forms” and believes that “everyone has a role to play.”
On Wednesday, several suspicious packages were discovered addressed to prominent Democrats including former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, former President Obama, former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).
The package sent to CNN’s headquarters in New York, Time Warner Center, was addressed to CIA Director John Brennan.
Three more packages were discovered on Thursday, one sent to actor Robert De Niro and two others sent to former Vice President Joe Biden.
A large federal investigation into the packages is ongoing, involving the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and U.S. Secret Service.
Not one package detonated and no one was injured.
The media was quick to pin the blame on President Trump and his administration, as evidenced by Zucker’s statement on Twitter.