CNN’s Jeff Zucker, Without Evidence, Links Trump Criticism to Bomb Scare

Jeff Zucker, CNN’s worldwide president, issued a statement Wednesday, blasting the White House for its “total and complete lack of understanding” of the “seriousness of their continued attacks on the media” after the news network received an apparent explosive device at its New York City headquarters.

“There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media: The President, and especially the White House Press Secretary, should understand their words matter,” Zucker said in a statement released via CNN’s communications department. “Thus far, they have shown no comprehension of that.”

Earlier, CNN’s studios in the Time Warner Center were evacuated after a device addressed to former CIA Director and MSNBC contributor John Brennan was found. CNN reporters, including chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto shared photos of the scene outside the Time Warner Center moments after evacuating.

Scene outside CNN NY HQ right now. #NYPD Bomb squad here. @CNNnewsroom pic.twitter.com/avUVaSKDRu

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) October 24, 2018

CNN New York was just evacuated. Police everywhere pic.twitter.com/yZLB6Cep0i

— Eric Levenson (@ejleven) October 24, 2018

In a prior memo to the news network’s employees, Zucker said its offices were safe to return to after the NYPD concluded a security sweep.

According to the NYPD’s chief of counterterrorism, the device found at CNN appears to originate from the same individual who sent crude pipe bombs to leading Democrat Party figures, including former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. John Miller, Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence & Counterterrorism of the NYPD, said the explosives sent to Obama and Clinton, along with progressive billionaire George Soros, were black and possessed wires. Further, Miller said the white powdery substance, which accompanied the device, was being tested to see if it is dangerous.

At a press briefing near Manhattan’s Time Warner Center, NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill pledged to bring the perpetrators to justice. At the briefing, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said, “we will not allow these terrorist thugs to change the way we live our lives.”

No arrests in connection to packages have been made at this time.