Sayoc’s Twitter feed shows he’s a strong supporter of Republican Ron DeSantis for governor and a fervent critic of his Democratic opponent, Andrew Gillum. He then voted in the regular primary that year, the general election and the GOP primary this year. Sayoc’s Twitter handle indicated he was a member of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, but the tribe said he wasn’t and had never worked for them.Ĭounty voting records show he registered to vote 11 days before the GOP presidential primary in 2016, too late to cast ballots for that election under Florida law. His social media accounts - including one that was suspended by Facebook - don’t show that he interacted with GOP leaders or activists. He wasn’t a regular at protests, and party officials in Miami-Dade County didn’t recognize him. Sayoc’s identity is a mystery to his fellow Miami Republicans. Rightfully so, but now we have to start the momentum again.” “The Republicans have tremendous momentum, and then, of course, this happened where all that you people talked about was that,” he said. The president continued to express his frustration on Friday evening. “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,” the president tweeted. Trump also vented on Twitter on Friday morning, suggesting that the wave of suspicious packages sent to his most prominent critics are an attempt to slow Republican early voting. “It didn’t get the kind of coverage it should have” because “we’re competing” with the suspicious packages story, he said, also musing that the coverage “can start to disappear rapidly,” since a suspect was arrested on Friday. We are committed to do everything to stop it.”īut Trump also expressed frustration that the media’s coverage of the potential explosives overshadowed his pre-midterms messaging, including a proposal to lower Medicare drug prices that he rolled out on Thursday. “We must never allow political violence to take root in America. “The events are despicable and have no place in our country, no place,” the president said during the 2018 Young Black Leadership Summit at the White House. Trump earlier Friday urged officials to prosecute the attacker “to the fullest extent of the law” while also saying that political violence has no place in America. “If you look at what happened to Steve Scalise, that was from a supporter of a different party,” he added, referencing the 2017 congressional baseball practice shooting. “There’s no blame, there’s no anything,” he said. He argued, though, that “there’s no blame.” Trump, while speaking to reporters on the South Lawn on Friday evening, said that he did not see his face on Sayoc’s van, but “heard he was a person that preferred me over others.” The van also had a number of images critical of CNN, including a sticker that said “CNN SUCKS.” Footage on Friday captured authorities examining and seizing a white van that was covered with pro-Trump and anti-Hillary Clinton stickers in Plantation, Fla. Sayoc’s Twitter account also included posts critical of several of the packages’ targets. The FBI found a fingerprint on one of the envelopes that matched Sayoc’s, who had a criminal record for various offenses. Several of the packages included pictures of the targets market with a red “X.” They all contained “energetic material,” according to the complaint, suggesting the devices were not meant to be fakes. “He may have been, it appears to be a partisan, but that will be determined by the facts as the case goes forward,” Sessions said.Īll of the devices were similarly packaged, with return addresses listing the Florida office of Rep. When asked during a news conference about Sayoc’s apparent fervor for Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he does not know whether Sayoc was specifically targeting Democrats. It also detailed how misspellings on Sayoc’s pro-Trump social media posts matched with misspellings on the suspicious packages. The federal complaint included 13 explosive devices that were bound for high-profile Democrats and CNN. The FBI arrested Cesar Sayoc, a 56-year-old Florida man, and charged him with five federal crimes - from mailing explosives to threatening former presidents - that carry a sentence of up to 58 years in prison.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |