Will pipe bomb scare be a factor in midterm voting? | McClatchy Washington Bureau

The fallout from the rash of pipe bombs mailed to prominent presidential critics is likely to harden already-rigid partisan battle lines.

President Donald Trump complained Friday that the “bomb stuff” would depress Republican turnout in November. Two days earlier, top Democrats had sought to pin the blame on Trump for the rash of pipe bombs mailed to prominent presidential critics.

None of those blame games are likely to make a big political difference.

“If you are motivated to vote at this point because you are angry at the way Trump functions as president, I don’t know that you are going to vote only because of the attacks,” said Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist in Florida. “People who are going to be angry about this, I think they have 1,000 other reasons to be angry at Trump and show up to vote.”

At the White House, Trump Friday urged the country to “show the world that we are united together in peace and love and harmony as fellow American citizens.”

But those remarks came only after lots of finger-pointing.

Trump had taken to Twitter Friday morning before the FBI announced an arrest in the case, urging Republicans to “go out and vote!” and complaining that the coverage of the “bomb stuff” was crowding out politics and was “greatly” slowing Republican momentum.

Schale said the calls for unity after the attacks will do little to defuse the partisanship: “The aspirational hope that this will somehow lower the temperature is probably just that, aspirational.”

Sal Russo, the co-founder and chief strategist for the conservative Tea Party Express, said that he didn’t believe the spate of mail bombs and the arrest of Florida resident Cesar Sayoc would have any “material impact” on the election.

Russo, a veteran California GOP strategist, sided with Republicans who have cited the case of a Bernie Sanders supporter who was implicated in the 2017 shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise, the House Majority Whip who was gravely injured during a charity baseball game practice.

Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont and liberal leader, sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, though his supporters have noted Sanders did not advocate for violence against political opponents.

Russo conceded that “we do a lot better with civil discourse and certainly that’s been lacking.”

Democrats earlier in the week had sought to blame Trump for the divisive rhetoric they believe fueled the pipe bomb mailings.

“Time and again, the president has condoned physical violence and divided Americans with his words and actions,” the top Democrats in the House and Senate, Nancy Pelsoi of California and Chuck Schumer of New York, said in a statement Wednesday.

They listed examples of Trump excusing perpetrators of violent acts, from “the congressman who body-slammed a reporter” to “dictators around the world who murder their own citizens.”

Sensing that Democrats were making the case as part of a pitch to protest Trump at the ballot in November, some Republicans stepped in to defend the president.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., enjoying his newfound status as a conservative star following his feisty defense of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, tweeted in Trump’s defense as he traveled the country on behalf of GOP candidates before the midterms.

“I didn’t blame Bernie Sanders when a Bernie supporter shot Congressman Steve Scalise,” he tweeted. “And I’m not going to blame President (Trump) for this nut job.”

Two people close to the White House said Trump and his aides felt they had gained politically after CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker issued a statement that said there was a “total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media.”

Those close to the White House said they believe CNN went “overboard” and “overreached” on its statement, as did Democrats, which allows the administration to continue with its long-standing strategy of bashing the media - a tactic popular with Trump’s base.

Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist, said he has little expectation that it will make a difference at the polls and said he’s not sure “it does anybody any good” to use the incident as political fodder.

“I think it trivializes the fact that real bombs were sent to real people and had they went off would’ve resulted in the loss of real life,” he said.

Mollineau said he believes that Trump’s political rhetoric at campaign events and on Twitter has served to inflame the political divide.

“But that argument only widens the divide,” he said. “In doing so, you only harden the belief of those who are on your side to begin with and push away those voters who align with Trump.”

As Trump left the White House Friday afternoon for a rally in North Carolina, he declined to say whether he believed his rhetoric had contributed to the attacks.

“I think I’ve been toned down if you want to know the truth,” he said. “I could really tone it up.”