Just days after taking her first formal step toward a presidential run in 2020, Sen. Elizabeth Warren took aim at the Trump administration, accusing the president and his cabinet members of “wallowing” in “corruption.”
However, in her interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Wednesday, the Democrat from Massachusetts did say the U.S. should pull its troops from Syria -- a rare moment of agreement with the sitting president.
Still, Warren lashed out at Trump for much of the interview. “We’ve lived through two years of Donald Trump as president … We have lived through two years of one scammer and grifter after another running federal agencies, running our government.” Warren said she believed Republicans have made excuses for Trump’s bad behavior because he's made good on certain promises such as repealing ObamaCare and tax cuts for the rich.
She also accused the Trump cabinet of “wallowing in the corruption” and policy-making that benefitted only the rich and large corporations. “Donald Trump is an accelerant,” she said while admitting that any Republican president would aim to make similar achievements in office.
“I see him as what happens when corruption invades a system that gets a little bit corrupt, and it gets a little more corrupt, and it gets a little more corrupt, and it gets bigger, and they get bolder and bolder and then you end up with someone like Donald Trump.”
Warren, who has been vocal about domestic issues in recent years, was asked about her lesser-known stances on foreign policy. “Are you asking me whether or not I think foreign policy ought to be conducted by tweet? The answer is no,” she said after agreeing that she did think Trump was correct in his decision to withdraw troops from Syria. Warren added that the U.S. should pull its troops from Afghanistan as well. Warren announced last Monday she was forming an exploratory committee ahead of a possible White House bid in 2020.
A Canadian man arrested Wednesday on suspicion of moving a White House security barrier said he wanted to deliver two bottles of Crown Royal whiskey to President Donald Trump and solicit advice on how to find a wife, authorities said.
Yianny Georgopoulos was arrested by D.C. police and faces an unlawful-entry charge.
In an interview with U.S. Secret Service agents, Georgopoulos allegedly said he wanted to deliver the bottles of whiskey to the president, NBC Washington reported.
Authorities said Georgopoulos moved a bicycle rack that had posted warnings that the area was restricted just after midnight. He reportedly exited the area after several commands from a Secret Service officer.
Georgopoulos also allegedly admitted to investigators of a recent arrest for threatening family members and stalking a cousin, the station reported. The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment early Thursday.
The mass shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks by ex-marine gunman Ian Long claimed the lives of 12 people, and authorities are still unsure what may have motivated the 28-year-old to carry out the attack. As the city of just 127,000 — which is known for its low crime rate and was rated the third safest city in the country — comes to terms with the incident, President Donald Trump has weighed in with his thoughts on the shooter.
"He is a very sick puppy," Trump told gathered reporters outside the White House before he left for a meeting with world leaders in Paris to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ending of World War 1.
Trump called Long "a sick puppy" (Source: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
It was speculated by numerous sources, including Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean, that Long may have suffered from PTSD after his time in the Marine Corps, which included a tour of Afghanistan. Commenting on the rumor, Trump said, "He was a Marine, he was in the war, he served time, he saw some pretty bad things. And a lot of people say he had PTSD and it's a tough deal."
According to the Mirror, the shooting at the bar, which was known to be a popular location amongst students in the area, saw an 18-year-old freshman student at Pepperdine University and a graduate of California Lutheran University named amongst the victims.
Also amongst the casualties was Sgt. Ron Helus, a deputy who had been working with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office for 29 years and who was one of the first responders on the scene. Dean paid tribute to his fallen colleague and revealed that Helus had been planning to retire before he was killed.
More tragically, several survivors of the October 2017 Las Vegas massacre — which claimed 58 lives and injured another 851 and was the deadliest mass shooting by an individual in the country's history — were reportedly at the bar as well.
One of the dead was found to be Telemachus Orfanos, who had managed to escape the hail of bullets shooter Stephen Paddock had rained down at the Route 91 Harvest music festival but would find himself at the wrong place at the wrong time once again.
A wildfire now threatens to destroy homes in Thousand Oaks (Source: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
While investigators are still struggling to uncover what may have motivated Long to commit the shooting, a Facebook post the ex-Marine made at the time of the shooting adds further to the mystery. "I hope people call me insane ... wouldn't that just be a big ball of irony?" he had written, quotes the Mirror. "Yeah... I'm insane, but the only thing you people do after these shootings is 'hopes and prayers'.. and wonder why these keep happening."
It also emerged that, like a lot of other mass shooters, Long had a history of violence against women. His former high school track coach, Dominique Colell, came out to reveal that the 28-year-old has sexually assaulted her while he was studying at the Newbury Park High School.
But residents of the quiet city have had little time to process the shooting, with a wildfire now threating to burn away their homes. 47-year-old Heather Wynalda, who lives a few miles outside Thousand Oaks, said her brother's home had been consumed by the fire but that he had managed to make it out alive.
"It's just devastating," she said. "This community pulled together so beautifully in the midst of yesterday's shooting ... and today, it is being frantically scattered in an effort to escape the fires."
The White House announced that Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), one of the longest-serving senators in United States history, will receive the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor.
Hatch has served as a senator for Utah for 41 years. The White House stated in a press release that Hatch has sponsored more bills that have become law than any other member of Congress.
Hatch announced that he was retiring earlier this year. He will be replaced by Mitt Romney, who was elected to serve in the U.S. Senate for Utah on Nov. 6.
“He [Hatch] has led the way in confirming qualified judges throughout the Federal judiciary in order to protect our constitutional order, and has championed religious liberty, fought against communism, and stood on the side of freedom around the world,” the White House wrote.
Hatch is part of a group of seven individuals, including Elvis Presley and Babe Ruth, who will receive the Medal of Freedom.
To read the full list of Medal of Freedom recipients, released by the White House Saturday, click here.
From the outside, Michelle and Barack Obama have it all. An eight-year run in the White House, two successful careers, two beautiful daughters and a loving marriage.
However, Michelle is here to let you know that nothing is ever as perfect as it seems.
In a new interview with Good Morning America, the 54-year-old revealed that she and her husband used IVF to conceive her children after suffering a devastating miscarriage.
Credit: Getty
In addition, she confessed she and Barack had been through marriage counseling, and spoke out about her true feelings on President Donald Trump, branding him a "misogynist" who made her "body buzz with fury".
The former lawyer told host Robin Roberts that losing the baby 20 years ago had left her feeling "lost and alone", adding that women need to know that miscarriages are incredibly common.
"I felt like I failed because I didn’t know how common miscarriages were because we don’t talk about them," she said, "We sit in our own pain, thinking that somehow we’re broken. That’s one of the reasons why I think it’s important to talk to young mothers about the fact that miscarriages happen... I think it’s the worst thing that we do to each other as women, not share the truth about our bodies and how they work."
When she was 34, the former First Lady realised that "the biological clock is real," and "egg production is limited". Soon after, the couple turned to IVF, finally acknowledging they "had to do" it.
Credit: Getty
This fertility treatment eventually led to the couple conceiving their two daughters, Malia, 20, and Sasha, 17.
Michelle - who was on GMA to promote her new memoir, Becoming - also opened up about her marriage, admitting that, although she and Barack often seem like the ideal couple from the outside, this isn't always the case.
The pair underwent marriage counseling when they hit a rocky patch in the past, something that the mother-of-two thoroughly recommends.
"Marriage counseling for us was one of those ways where we learned how to talk out our differences," she explained. "I know too many young couples who struggle and think that somehow there’s something wrong with them. And I want them to know that Michelle and Barack Obama, who have a phenomenal marriage and who love each other, we work on our marriage. And we get help with our marriage when we need it."
Credit: Getty
Michelle's new book delves into the turbulent world of American politics, with the former FLOTUS making her feelings on President Trump perfectly clear.
In the memoir, the 54-year-old accuses him of putting her family in danger, naming the former businessman's unfounded claims that her husband was secretly a foreign-born Muslim as "crazy and mean-spirited" with an undercurrent of "bigotry and xenophobia hardly concealed."
"But it was also dangerous, deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks," she writes. "What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls? Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk. And for this, I’d never forgive him."
Credit: Getty
Furthermore, she speaks out about Trump's now-infamous "grab her by the p***y" moment, claiming her "body buzzed with fury after hearing it".
She names the former reality TV star a "misogynist," comparing him to his rival Hillary Clinton, who she calls "an exceptionally-qualified female candidate."
Michelle Obama’s full interview will air on ABC at 9PM EST Sunday.
On the heels of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ resignation, President Trump put to rest rumours Friday that he planned to fire Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
Speaking to a crowd of reporters ahead of his trip to Paris, Trump was asked point blank if he would fire Zinke.
“No, I’m going to look into any complaints,” he said.
The informal announcement by Trump comes just two days after he told reporters he would reach some resolution on Zinke in about a week.
The former Montana congressman has come under fire for his alleged misconduct as interior secretary, centering on a real estate deal in his home state involving a foundation he created and the chairman of an energy service company that does business with Interior.
Zinke, 57, also raised ethical concerns when he blocked two Connecticut tribes from opening a casino and redrew boundaries to shrink a Utah national monument.
A spokesperson with the department told The Associated Press in an email that Zinke has denied any plans to leave.
While Zinke appears to be in the clear for now, the dust has yet to settle from the most recent shakeup for the Trump administration; Sessions resigned as attorney general on Wednesday.
Sessions, once a trusted Trump adviser, fell out with the president over his recusal from the inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections.
Popular singer and actress Barbra Streisand has threatened to move to Canada again if the Republicans win the majority House vote in the midterm elections next week, according to reports. The 76-year-old singer made the statement while talking to The New York Times and added that the current state of the United States is making her "fat."
"I’ve been thinking about, do I want to move to Canada? I don’t know. I’m just so saddened by this thing happening to our country. I want to sleep nights... if we take the House I’ll be able to sleep a little bit better," Streisand said over the weekend. The singer has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and had previously threatened to move to Canada is the Republican won the election. However, she never made the move regardless of the outcome of the 2016 presidential elections.
Barbra Streisand attends Tribeca Talks: Barbra Streisand with Robert Rodriguez during the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival at BMCC Tribeca PAC on April 29, 2017 in New York City.
Streisand had suggested at the time that if not Canada, she might as well move to Australia. "He has no facts. I don't know, I can't believe it. I'm either coming to your country [Australia], if you'll let me in, or Canada," the singer had said while talking to the Hollywood Reporter. 'A Star is Born' actress also made headlines last week after she called President Trump "a conman."
The star, during an interview with The Guardian, on Friday said that Trump is only good at "marketing," selling himself and has no humility. "I can't bear the man! He's a man with no manners! He doesn't see his own flaws; he doesn't know what he doesn't know. You know? He has no humility. He's good at marketing. He knows how to sell; he's a conman. That's what he's good at. But he doesn't think he needs anyone's help, he thinks he can go it alone," the Academy Award-winning actress said.
The singer also added that her new album 'Walls' has been influenced by her feelings towards the president, however, she was careful not to mention his name in the songs in an effort to not alienate the listeners.
Barbra Streisand - Walls poster
"You have to write lyrics that can be more than just a protest. They have to appeal to a universal audience. Even when I wrote Don't Lie to Me, at first I thought, well, I could make you think it's like a love affair, a marriage breaking up. It's a universal thought: don't lie to me," she said.
She also accused the Republican president of "reversing reality" and called him "ill-informed": "What [Trump is] doing is reversing reality, actually. It's like that joke: a woman walks in and her husband is in bed with another woman. And he says, 'Who are you going to believe, me or your lyin' eyes?' Facts matter. Words have meaning. This man defies that. He says climate change is a hoax. Let's release more coal and carbon into the air and have more megafires and hurricanes."
"I mean he's so stupid! He's so ill-informed. Liar is not enough of a word. There must be a bigger word for someone who lies about everything," the singer added.
A federal judge in California ruled in favor of the Trump Administration on Thursday, blocking a bill that gave the state the right to thwart the sale of federal lands to private interests, including loggers, oil drillers and developers, reports said.
U.S. District Judge William Shubb ruled against the state’s Senate Bill 50, which gave the State Lands Commission the first right of refusal of the sale of federal lands in California, the Sacramento Bee reported. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in October 2017, according to the Sacramento Bee. State Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica had sponsored the law, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The judge’s ruling said the bill is unconstitutional because it “trespasses on the federal government’s ability to convey land to whomever it wants,” the Bee reported.
The federal government owns 46 million acres of land in California, including Point Reyes National Seashore and Yosemite National Park, according to the Chronicle.
State lawyers argued that government-owned lands are entitled to greater legal protection because they have been “preserved for the public benefit,” the report said. But Shubb said the lands are “linked to their federal status” and couldn’t be under state regulation, according to the paper.
The state’s Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor and is a member of the Lands Commission, pushed back on the Trump Administration’s lawsuit last April to halt enforcement of SB 50, according to the Bee.
“We will use every legal and administrative tool to thwart Trump’s plans to auction off California’s heritage to the highest bidder,” Newsom said. "Yet again, Donald Trump and his administration are attacking our state and our very way of life.”
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra also said in a statement in April that "we're prepared, as always, to do what it takes to protect our people, our resources and our values."
The State Lands Commission said it is analyzing the ruling, but had no further comment, the Bee reported.
Meanwhile, the Trump Administration lauded the court victory.
“The court’s ruling is a firm rejection of California’s assertion that, by legislation, it could dictate how and when the federal government sells federal land,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a prepared statement, according to the Bee. “This (law) was a stunning assertion of constitutional power by California, and it was properly and promptly dismissed by the district judge.”
The lawsuit had cited the sale of Army property east of San Francisco, which the state declined to purchase. The State Lands Commission has requested information about a planned property sale in Santa Barbara County to decide whether to buy first, according to the lawsuit.
The auction of 1.7 acres owned by the U.S. Postal Service was suspended when nobody bid, and a developer looking to purchase property at the now-closed Naval Air Station Alameda has requested a delay, the lawsuit contended,
President Donald Trump has a lot to be proud of after employers in the US added a staggering 250,000 jobs last month and the country witnessed the highest growth in average pay in nearly a decade. As the commander-in-chief tours the country to preserve Republican control of the House and Senate, American citizens are bound to be happy with his overall performance, Daily Mail reports.
The unemployment rate remained at a five-decade low of 3.7 percent, according to the Labor Department's monthly jobs report — the last major publication of economic data before Tuesday's midterm elections.
Average hourly earnings, a key metric that affects voters directly, also increased by 0.2 percent from September, resulting in a total annualized gain of 3.1 percent. Furthermore, unemployment remained at a 48 year low — basically since the start of recording such data.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media before departing on Marine One at the White House on October 22, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Getty)
The president celebrated the news on Twitter: "Wow! The US added 250,000 Jobs in October — and this was despite the hurricanes. Unemployment at 3.7%. Wages UP! These are incredible numbers. Keep it going, Vote Republican!"
The report comes as a major relief for the nationalist leader, who was disappointed after a couple of disturbing events had purportedly slowed down the "red wave". These included the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh that claimed 11 lives as well as the barrage of pipe bomb mails sent to Democrats.
Addressing a swarming audience at a campaign rally Thursday night, Trump said: "Now, we did have two maniacs stop a momentum that was incredible. Because for 7 days, nobody talked about the elections. It stopped a tremendous momentum."
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a Congressional Medal of Honor Society reception at the East Room of the White House September 12, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Getty)
“More importantly, we have to take care of our people, and we don’t care about momentum when it comes to a disgrace like just happened to the country, but it did nevertheless stop a certain momentum," he added.
In his closing arguments for the mid-term elections, President Trump spoke largely about immigration, tweeting a campaign ad that blamed the Democrats for a convicted murderer and blasting the second immigrant caravan that is headed towards the US-Mexico border. The president said he will change asylum policy, end "birthright citizenship", and that he'll build tent cities to house those who make it to the southern border. He also rolled out a slogan that basically hits two birds with a single stone, reading "Jobs not Mobs" — a swipe that talks up job gains on one hand while making ideological attacks on Democrats on the other.
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses young black conservative leaders from across the country as part of the 2018 Young Black Leadership Summit at White House on October 26, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Getty)
According to Daily Mail, the influx of new job seekers in October increased the proportion of Americans with jobs to its highest level since January 2009. In the past 18 years, consumers have never been so confident about spending freely, thus propelling rapid economic growth. Companies have been enabled to steadily add workers after the resulting strength in customer demand. While economists are predicting that the hiring rates will slow down as the pool of unemployed Americans swiftly shrinks, there's no sign of that happening anytime soon.
Caitlyn Jenner on Thursday criticized President Donald Trump’s attacks on the LGBTQ community, and transgender people in particular, after a leaked document showed that his administration wants to define gender based on a person’s genitals at birth.
Jenner, in an op-ed published by The Washington Post, said that despite the criticism she received from some in the LGBTQ community for engaging with Trump and his administration, she “remained hopeful for positive change.”
“Sadly, I was wrong,” Jenner wrote. “The reality is that the trans community is being relentlessly attacked by this president.”
The New York Times reported Sunday that the Department of Health and Human Services was leading an effort to establish a legal definition of gender under Title IX, the federal civil rights law. The law states that no person can be discriminated against from participating in or receiving benefits of any education program on the basis of gender.
Under the proposal, a person's sex would be determined by genitals at birth, and it specifies only two genders, male and female, which could not be changed in the future.
“We have a lot of different concepts right now,” he said. “They have a lot of different things happening with respect to transgender right now. You know that as well as I do, and we’re looking at it very seriously.”
The president added that he is “protecting everybody.”
Jenner, a transgender activist and celebrity, is a Republican who has met with a number of GOP lawmakers and voted for Trump in the 2016 election.
Since being elected, Trump has rolled back guidelines allowing transgender students to use public school restrooms based on their gender identity, and he has said that he will ban transgender people from serving in the military.
“The leader of our nation has shown no regard for an already marginalized and struggling community,” Jenner wrote. “He has ignored our humanity. He has insulted our dignity.
“He has made trans people into political pawns as he whips up animus against us in an attempt to energize the most right-wing segment of his party, claiming his anti-transgender policies are meant to ‘protect the country.’ “This is politics at its worst. It is unacceptable, it is upsetting, and it has deeply, personally hurt me.”
Cesar Sayoc is an amateur body builder and former stripper, a loner with a long arrest record who showed little interest in politics until Donald Trump came along.
On Friday, he was identified by authorities as the Florida man who put pipe bombs in small manila envelopes, affixed six stamps and sent them to some of Trump's most prominent critics.
\ His arrest capped a week in which the bombs aimed at some of America's biggest names — Obama, Clinton, De Niro — dominated the news and invited speculation about who might be responsible for them. The answer, authorities said, was Sayoc, a 56-year-old man from Aventura, Florida, who was devoted to Trump, had a history of financial problems and an extensive arrest record, including a stint on probation for making a bomb threat.
His attorney in that 2002 case, Ronald Lowy, described Sayoc as "a confused man who had trouble controlling his emotions."
A cousin of Sayoc, Lenny Altieri, used stronger terms.
"I know the guy is a lunatic," Altieri told The Associated Press. "He has been a loner."
Altieri confirmed that Sayoc had been a stripper. On an online resume, Sayoc described himself as a booker and promoter for burlesque shows.
Stacy Saccal, the general manager of the Ultra Gentlemen's Club in West Palm Beach, said Sayoc had worked there for about two months, first as a floor bouncer and for the past month as a disc jockey — most recently on Thursday night, hours before his arrest Friday morning.
"I didn't know this guy was mad crazy like this," she said Friday. "Never once did he speak politics. This is a bar. We don't talk politics or religion in a bar, you know?"
Florida voter records show Sayoc first registered in March 2016 as a Republican and cast a ballot in that November's presidential election.
He has been an active Trump supporter, tweeting and posting Facebook videos that appear to show him at the president's rallies.
Sayoc's social media accounts are peppered with memes supporting Trump, and denigrating Democrats.
Sayoc lived in a white 2002 Dodge Ram van, which was plastered with stickers supporting Trump and criticizing media outlets that included CNN, which was also targeted by mail bombs.
The van was often parked outside an LA Fitness in Aventura, backed up in a parking space under the trees for shade. Patrons say they frequently saw him in the locker room.
"He'd just be walking straight to the shower and be in the shower forever," said Edgar Lopez, who often exercises at the gym. "I never saw him working out."
Other times, the van was seen parked at the beach in nearby Hollywood before dawn, with Sayoc stripping down to skin-tight shorts for an outdoor shower.
"I've seen the guy maybe 80 times and I never said a word to him because I had a feeling he was a little off," said Marc Weiss, the superintendent of a building near where Sayoc frequently parked. "I assumed because he was showering at the beach that he was homeless."
In 2015, he reported to police that his van was broken into outside of a gym in Oakland Park, Florida. He claimed that more than $40,000 worth of items were stolen, including $7,150 worth of Donald Trump-brand suits.
But often, Sayoc was on the other side of legal complaints.
In the 2002 bomb threat case, he had lashed out at a Florida utility representative because his electricity service was about to be cut off. The arrest report said Sayoc threatened in a phone call to blow up the utility's offices and said that "It would be worse than September 11th."
Sayoc was also convicted in 2014 for grand theft and in 2013 for battery. In 2004, he faced several felony charges for unlawful possession of a synthetic anabolic steroid often used to help build muscles. He also had several arrests going back to the 1990s for theft, obtaining fraudulent refunds and tampering with evidence.
Lowy said he recalled that Sayoc also had a run-in with authorities where he was charged with possessing a fake driver's license after altering his birthdate to make him appear younger.
Sayoc displayed no political leanings at the time of the bombing charge, Lowy said, except for plastering his vehicle with Native American emblems. Sayoc told his lawyer his father was Native American.
More recently, Sayoc described himself on social media as being affiliated with the Seminole Warriors boxing club and being a member of the "Unconquered Seminole Tribe."
Gary Bitner, a spokesman for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, said there is no evidence to show that Sayoc worked for the tribe or was a tribal member.
Altieri, his cousin, said Sayoc's only connection to Native Americans was that he once dated a member of a tribe.
Sayoc was born in New York City. His mother was Italian and his biological father was Filipino, and his parents separated when he was a young boy, Altieri said. After his parents separated, Sayoc was "kind of rejected" by his family.
"When you get no love as a young kid, you get kind of out of whack," he said.
He enrolled at Brevard College in North Carolina in 1980 and attended for three semesters, said Christie Cauble, the school's interim director of communications. He then transferred to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, enrolling for the 1983-84 academic year. Buffie Stephens, director of media relations for the school, said Sayoc didn't declare a major. He played a few games as a walk-on player for the university's men's soccer team. There is no indication he ever completed a degree.
He moved to the Miami suburbs in the late 1980s. He had serious financial problems in recent years, including losing his home in foreclosure in 2009 and filling for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 2012.
In court records, Sayoc was described as having $4,175 in personal property and more than $21,000 in debts, mostly from unpaid credit cards. His monthly income at the time was $1,070.
"Debtor lives with mother, owns no furniture," Sayoc's lawyer indicated in a property list. Sayoc's mother, Madeline, also filed for bankruptcy around the same time. She was not immediately available to respond to phone messages left with her by the AP.
Sayoc's media diet appears to have consisted of a toxic mixture of conspiracy theory, parody accounts and right-wing news sites. One of Sayoc's most favored recent sources was a Twitter account that spread hoaxes about the Parkland High School shooting in Florida earlier this year.
He tweeted at least 40 times a screenshot of a meme featuring the transparently false claim that Parkland mass-shooting survivor David Hogg never went to Stoneman Douglas High School, occasionally including hostile captions such as "He is a George Soros paid protester." Soros, the billionaire progressive political donor, was targeted this week by a package bomb.
Sayoc even seems to have stumbled across a Polish conspiracy news site, tweeting out a wildly false claim that Angela Merkel had been conceived using Adolf Hitler's frozen sperm.
In June, he praised Trump in a birthday message saying, "Happy Birthday President Donald J. Trump the greatest result President ever."
This version of the story corrects to Sayoc, not Altieri, in the 4th and 2nd paragraphs from end.
US investigators have arrested a suspect in Florida in connection with 12 suspicious packages and pipe bombs sent to critics of Donald Trump in a days-long spree that has inflamed the United States ahead of key midterm elections.
The Republican commander-in-chief congratulated law enforcement Friday for what he called an "incredible, incredible job" as US media identified the suspect as Cesar Sayoc, a 56-year-old man with a criminal history.
"These terrorizing acts are despicable and have no place in our country," Trump told an event at the White House, confirming a suspect had been apprehended following an FBI-led nationwide manhunt mobilizing hundreds of agents.
"But the bottom line is Americans must unify and we must show the world that we are united together in peace and love and harmony as fellow American citizens," the president added.
The keen bodybuilder, who is of Native American origin, posted photos of himself wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat (Broward Sheriff)
Photographs have emerged of Sayoc at a 2016 rally for Mr Trump, with the alleged bomber's Facebook page plastered with right-wing memes, according to media reports.
The keen bodybuilder, who is of Native American origin, posted photos of himself wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. Other memes attack Mrs Clinton, with one branding her a hypocrite. There are also images insulting Muslims as "paedophiles and rapists".
I would like to begin today’s remarks by providing an update on the packages and devices that have been mailed to high-profile figures throughout our Country, and a media org. I am pleased to inform you that law enforcement has apprehended the suspect and taken him into custody.
The Department of Justice was to hold a news conference on the case at 2:30 pm (1830 GMT).
In southern Florida, FBI agents and police swarmed the area around a strip mall in Plantation, where an AFP photographer saw a van covered in blue tarpaulin loaded onto a truck by authorities and being driven away.
Pictures broadcast on television showed the van plastered with pro-Trump stickers.
Much of the investigation had homed in on Florida in the last 24 hours, where officials reportedly believed that at least some of the packages had been sent. Media described Sayoc as living in Aventura, Florida while also having ties to New York.
Since Monday homemade bombs and other suspected explosive devices have been addressed to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood megastar Robert De Niro and a litany of figures loathed by the US president's supporters.
On Friday, an 11th package addressed to Cory Booker, a New Jersey senator often touted as a Democratic presidential hope, was intercepted in Florida, the FBI confirmed.
A 12th package, identified by police as a pipe bomb, was found at a US Post Office in Manhattan and removed by the bomb squad, New York police said.
James Clapper, among a string of former intelligence chiefs critical of Trump, was the addressee of the 12th package, sent care of CNN.
On Wednesday, the news network evacuated its New York bureau after a similar package was found in the mail room addressed to another frequent CNN guest, former CIA director John Brennan.
Trump earlier came under fire for his response to the spree, which politicians on all sides have branded domestic terrorism with devices intercepted in New York, Maryland, Florida, Delaware and Los Angeles.
On Friday, shortly before news of the arrest broke, he complained that the packages were slowing momentum for his Republican Party ahead of the November 6 elections, remarks bound to enrage his opponents.
"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," Trump tweeted.
"Very unfortunate, what is going on. Republicans, go out and vote!"
Trump was also criticized for tempering calls for unity in the wake of the attacks, by lashing out at the press for stirring up "anger."
He recently endorsed the body-slamming of a reporter, routinely denounces the press as "fake news" and has leveled toxic remarks in the past against the pipe bomb targets.
'They were dangerous'
Despite little information on whether the man in custody is suspected of working in cahoots with others, New York's state Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo disputed speculation that the devices were not rigged to explode.
"No one can say there were fake bombs, they were dangerous," he told CNN. "There may be questions about the levels of sophistication."
Double Oscar winner and biting Trump critic De Niro on Friday urged people to vote the midterms, one day after a device was discovered at the Manhattan offices of his production company.
"I thank God no one's been hurt, and I thank the brave and resourceful security and law enforcement people for protecting us," he said. "There's something more powerful than bombs, and that's your vote. People MUST vote!"
"This is definitely domestic terrorism," Clapper told CNN Friday, hitting out at Trump saying he bore "some responsibility of civility in this country. He needs to remember that his words count."
The packages were sent in manila envelopes with bubble wrap, marked with computer-printed address labels. Each listed Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, as the sender, including misspellings of her last name, the FBI said.
Wasserman Schultz told reporters in southern Florida that it had "devastating" and "deeply disturbing" to have had her name used.
"I've been told by the FBI that this is their highest priority and they're on top of it," she said.
Credit: Getty
Credit: Getty
Credit: Getty
Credit: Getty
