The FBI and other US intelligence agencies are continuing to search for the culprit who shipped a number of explosive devices – which failed to detonate – to a number of prominent Donald Trump critics.
Of those who received suspicious packages – from leading Democrats, Hilary Clinton and former President Barack Obama to billionaire financier George Soros and most recently Hollywood superstar Robert De Niro – almost all had been personally attacked by Trump.
But while US law enforcement officials conduct their own investigations, the US mainstream media – whom Trump brands “fake news” – is also hunting down clues and pondering motives as the nation scales to make sense of the chaos.
The host of US media broadcaster MSNBC, Chuck Todd – also the political editor of NBC News – has taken the extraordinary guesswork to new levels, blaming the Russians for the mail bombs.
Mr Todd said: “This feels like a spot — I have this fear this could be some Russian operation too — designed to do what’s happening now.
“More of this — you know.
“In some ways, we shouldn’t rule out — it is dividing us.”
The liberal media newsman was speaking during a panel discussion on the bomb attempts when he made the remarks.
Senior MSNBC political editor Beth Fouhy, Daily Beast columnist Jonathan Alter and prominent commentator John Podhoretz joined Todd for the discussion.
The anchor opened by playing a clip of Trump calling on political leaders to stop portraying their opponents as “morally defective”.
Trump made the comments during a Make America Great Again campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin.
As he opened his address to his base, Trump employed a markedly more subdued tone than usual as he condemned the mail bombers.
He said: “Any acts or threats of political violence are attacks on our nation itself.”
However, in typically unpredictable form, the firebrand Republican returned to his usual critique of the mainstream press on Thursday, appearing to implicate them directly in the mail bomb debacle.
In a tweet, he said: “A very big part of the anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the mainstream media that I refer to as fake news.
“It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description.
“Mainstream media must clean up its act, FAST!”