Sherrill takes rare shot at Trump over response to attempted bombings

Editor’s Note: This story was updated with comment from Assemblyman Jay Webber at 8:15 p.m.

Mikie Sherrill took a rare shot at President Donald Trump over his response to attempted assassinations of a number the latter’s political opponents, including Sen. Cory Booker.

“I was just concerned that president Trump has started to use very divisive language about the press with respect to the pipe bombs that are being sent,” she said. “I think it would have been a great opportunity to unite the country around this really horrible behavior and provide real leadership, and again I think we see Assemblyman Webber sort of mimicking some of that by not coming out strongly in opposition to this and running a very divisive campaign, so I was sorry to see that.”

Jay Webber’s campaign later put out a statement calling for the prosecution of those responsible for dispatching the bombs.

“The person or persons responsible for the series of bomb threats over this past week should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Webber said. “I am thankful to law enforcement, the Secret Service, FBI, and all others involved with today’s arrest and their commitment to protecting the public.”

Webber then pivoted into an attack over a threat he and his family received earlier this week, when an unknown person mailed a cut-up webber campaign sign and a threatening letter to Webber’s home.

“Mikie Sherrill’s politicization of this very serious crime is the exact type of divisive politics she pretends to oppose,” Webber said. “Coming in the same week my family was threatened, and a week after Sherrill’s allies promised to ‘take me down,’ Sherrill’s comments are hypocritical, wildly irresponsible,  and beneath the office she seeks.”

Sherrill called condemned the letter on Wednesday, calling it “appalling.”

Trump, meanwhile, has shifted from an uncharacteristically conciliatory tone he displayed in the immediate aftermath of the discovery of the first bombs, which were sent to, among others, the families of former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as well as to CNN offices in New York.

The president appeared to doubt the veracity of the bombings in a tweet on Friday, saying that the attempted assassinations were slowing Republican momentum with midterm elections just 11 days away.

“Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this ‘Bomb’ stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows – news not talking politics. Very unfortunate, what is going on. Republicans, go out and vote!” Trump said on Twitter.

In a televised address later on Friday, Trump again condemned the attempted bombings.

“We must never allow political violence to take root in America,” he said.

Authorities on Friday arrested a suspect they identified as Cesar Sayoc, a Florida resident and reportedly a longtime registered Republican with a lengthy criminal history.

The bombs, 13 of which have been found since Monday, were sent exclusively to Trump’s political opponents or others he has attacked in various circumstances.