After days of conservative conspiracy theories about attempted bomb attacks on prominent Democrats being fake, authorities took a suspect into custody over the mailed devices and surprise — he’s a Trump supporter. Although Cesar Sayoc’s Twitter feed has since been suspended, the window it provided into his thinking was preserved — including through the means of a selfie video he took at a Trump rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, in late 2016, about two years ago.
WATCH: Social media video shows mail bombing suspect Cesar Sayoc attending pro-Trump rally in Oct. 2016 https://t.co/QOC2JDvOIU pic.twitter.com/GsCKtEjYKD
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 26, 2018
He was also photographed at a Trump rally with a sign featuring a coffin with pictures of CNN and Buzzfeed on it. There’s no way to divorce that behavior from his presently under scrutiny crimes, and the rhetoric that runs through it all — President Donald Trump’s insistence that most of the mainstream media peddles “fake news” and is the “enemy of the people.”
His account has been suspended now but here’s the photos showing Cesar Sayoc at a Trump rally holding a sign featuring a coffin with pictures of CNN and BuzzFeed on it pic.twitter.com/U4XPFW7Tdb
— David Mack (@davidmackau) October 26, 2018
Sayoc is hardly the only Trump supporter to take the president’s rhetoric to heart, with quips about killing journalists popping up at Trump rallies plenty of times before.
Sayoc was apprehended in Florida, and there’s been a report about him having connections to New York, but it’s unclear why he was so far from what was apparently his home and in Ohio at all. Considering what else is known about him, it’s possible he was just that dedicated to Donald Trump and decided to take a road trip to one of his rallies.
What he might have taken that trip in has attracted its own set of scrutiny. After he was apprehended, journalists caught his vehicle on camera — a white van with pro-Trump stickers plastered all over its windows. As there hasn’t necessarily been a ton to go on in understanding the man’s thinking yet, the van has attracted a good deal of attention. It featured graphics including prominent interests perceived as anti-Trump in the crosshairs of a gun — including some of those he eventually targeted with mailed bombs, like Hillary Clinton and CNN.
None of the devices went off, but he mailed them out around the country, targeting — besides the Clintons and CNN — prominent Democrats including California U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker, and former Vice President Joe Biden.
He’d made threats on his Twitter feed at the Democrats in question, too, issuing hatred like an admonishment for Joe Biden to hug his family every time he leaves home because of some looming apparent threat.
He’s proven at least somewhat unhinged for awhile, having threatened an explosives attack against Florida Power & Light, saying his wrath would prove “worse than September 11.” He was fingerprinted over the incident when it unfolded back in 2002, and those recorded prints are how authorities tracked him down, because they appeared on at least one of the packages.
Trump, even after Sayoc was apprehended, has tried to downplay the significance of his actions, casting coverage of the — in his words — “Bomb” stuff as a ploy to stop talking about Republican accomplishments.
No pronouncement along those lines, however, will erase the facts of the bomber clearly having a grand old time at his rally.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot