Lou Dobbs and other pro-Trump pundits claim recent bomb scares are 'false flags'

Lou Dobbs, a conservative commentator, has alleging that news of suspicious packages sent to notable critics of President Donald Trump are fabricated in a now-deleted tweet.

“Fake News — Fake Bombs,” Mr Dobbs wrote in the tweet, void of any evidence. “Who could possibly benefit by so much fakery?”

On Thursday former Vice President Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro were added to a list of high-profile Democrats and Trump critics who had been sent suspected explosive devices or suspicious packages. Former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, former CIA director John Brennan, former attorney general Eric Holder, and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Congresswoman Maxine Waters had been sent such items on Tuesday and Wednesday. A package had also been sent to billionaire George Soros on Monday.

Mr Dobbs, who hosts an eponymous show on Fox Business, is not the only person claiming the recent bomb scares as “false flag” operations.

Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker went on Fox News on Wednesday and suggested the bomb threats were carried out by someone “trying to get the democratic vote out” ahead of the midterm elections next month. Frank Gaffney, who served as an adviser to Mr Trump’s transition team, tweeted that the suspicious packages sent to prominent progressive personalities are a left-wing “deflection” technique.

“None of the leftists ostensibly targeted for pipe-bombs were actually at serious risk, since security details would be screening their mail,” Mr Gaffney tweeted. “So let’s determine not only who is responsible for these bombs, but whether they were trying to deflect attention from the Left’s mobs.”

Rush Limbaugh, an infamous conservative radio personality, suggested on his show that a Democrat might have sent those packages to make Mr Trump look bad. “Republicans just don’t do this sort of thing,” Mr Limbaugh said.

He went on to suggest journalists have a nefarious liberal agenda and often falsely accuse perpetrators of attacks to be right-wing.

“Even though every event, like mass shootings, remember, every mass shooting there is, the Democrats in the media try to make everybody think right off the bat that some tea partier did it, or some talk radio fan did it, or some Fox News viewer did it,” Mr Limbaugh added. “Turns out, it’s never, ever the case.”

Neither Mr Dobbs, Mr Swecker, Mr Gaffney, or Mr Limbaugh have provided evidence to prove their “false flag” attack claims.

If, however, these suspicious packages were intended to scare Americans into voting Democrat on Election Day, the evidence does not add up. James Cavanaugh, a former special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), believe these suspicious packages were meant to inflict harm.

“In addition, law enforcement sources now say two bombs were sent to Rep. Maxine Waters and two were sent to former Vice President Joe Biden in Delaware,” Mr Cavanaugh wrote in a NBC News op-ed. “You don't send two bombs to scare somebody. You send two bombs to try to kill somebody.”

The former ATF special agent also mentioned apparent glass shrapnel found in some packages also are another indicator that the packages were not intended as a scare tactic.

“But what we know about the bomber or bombers in this case indicates they are not simply intending to scare people,” he added. “Bombers do not put shrapnel inside a bomb to scare somebody — because it's not visible that way. Bombers who just intend to scare their targets, or the public, tape the shrapnel to the outside of the bomb so that it adds to the fear factor.”