Two suspicious packages sent to former VP Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro

World Today

SUSPICIOUS PACKAGES_v03A map of prominent Democrats who have been targeted by suspicious packages.

Suspicious packages addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro were intercepted Thursday.

The official says it has similar markings and characteristics as the packages containing bombs sent to other prominent Democrats.

CGTN’s John Terrett reports.

The package addressed to Biden was intercepted at a postal center in New Castle, Delaware.

The official wasn’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

Several packages containing pipe bombs packed with shards of glass have been intercepted in the last few days. They targeted Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, CNN and others.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the notion that President Donald Trump is responsible for the packages sent to his opponents is “disgraceful.”

She told reporters Thursday there’s a big difference between “comments made and actions taken.”

Sanders says the president is not responsible for sending suspicious packages any more than Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, was responsible for one of his supporters shooting up a GOP baseball practice last year in Virginia.

The gunman, James Hodgkinson, had posted social media messages suggesting he targeted the team because of his political views.


Story by the Associated Press.


The Guardian’s David Smith on the suspicious parcels

CGTN’s Asieh Namdar spoke with The Guardian’s Washington D.C. bureau chief David Smith on the suspicious packages that have been mailed to news organizations and prominent Democrat politicians and supporters. Smith also discusses the political overtones of this event.