CNN’s New York City headquarters was evacuated Thursday night due to a bomb threat that was phoned in, but unsubstantiated. Before CNN reporters could even get back in the building, they were already blaming President Trump for ‘inspiring violence against CNN’.
“We were told to evacuate the building and to do it as soon as possible. We grabbed what we could and got out of the building and now, we are standing outside of the building,” Host Don Lemon told viewers during a live broadcast.
Lemon went on to claim that whole thing was extra “suspicious” because it happened shortly after President Trump tweeted “FAKE NEWS – THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”
FAKE NEWS – THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2018
“We don’t know if it has anything to do with it but certainly after. The tweet came out at 10:08 and at 10:15 there was a bomb threat,” Lemon told CNN reporter Brian Stelter.
While Stelter was, rather surprisingly, less eager to embrace Lemon’s theory, the latter continued his journey to conspiracy central.
“And again, we don’t know but the timing is obviously suspicious. These are the times that we are living in and we know what the situation was with the last person who did something similar.” Lemon stated, referring to CNN being mailed an ‘explosive device’ back in October by a purported Trump supporter.
Lemon wouldn’t let up. Later in the broadcast he brought on a former Obama aide to repeat his conspiracy theory.
“Well, the first thing I want to say, Don, is, as I was on my way up here I was struck by the fact the President did tweet minutes before this event happened using language that we know has inflamed violence in the past,” said Samantha Vinograd, a former national security official under Obama.
“From a national security perspective, it is clear that at least in the President’s Twitter feed there is this language that is trigger language for violence that has occurred in the past several weeks. And if you look at the macro picture here, it is very clear that the United States is now really becoming a battleground.” Vinograd added.
Vinograd then claimed that because of Trump, the US is becoming like “countries around the world where people aren’t comfortable traveling, sending their children, and going to study.”
Presidents are supposed to want to keep all Americans safe. This one knowingly uses phrases that have inspired violence against @CNN and so many others in the past. He is knowingly calling for violence rather than trying to stop it.
— Sam Vinograd (@sam_vinograd) December 7, 2018
In addition to this insanity, CNN reporters took to Twitter to blame Trump for the unsubstantiated threat:
Meanwhile @cnn being evacuated due to a bomb threat.
Coincidence? You decide. https://t.co/VFIKqCzqSt
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) December 7, 2018
It emerged Friday morning that the bomb threat was actually made before 10pm, thus before Trump’s tweet.
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