Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is calling on voters to elect candidates who “will bring the country together” after possible explosive devices were sent to her as well as former president Barack Obama and CNN’s offices in New York this week.
“Many of you and others across our country have asked after me and my family and I’m very grateful for that,” Clinton said during a campaign event in Miami on Wednesday less than two weeks before the midterm elections. “We are fine, thanks to the men and women of the Secret Service, who intercepted the package addressed to us long before it made its way to our home.”
“Every day we are grateful for their service and commitment and obviously never more than today, but it is a troubling time, isn’t it? It’s a time of deep divisions and we have to do everything we can to bring our country together,” she said. “We also have to elect candidates who will try to do the same.”
Hillary Clinton addresses suspicious package sent to her home: "We are fine thanks to the men and women of the Secret Service who intercepted the package addressed to us long before it made its way to our home. Everyday we are grateful to their service" https://t.co/j35474bsYi pic.twitter.com/WpK8PQ6kfn
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 24, 2018
Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, also thanked the the Secret Service in a tweet on Wednesday. “Every day, I am grateful to the women and men of the United States Secret Service,” she wrote. “Thank you.”
The FBI said that it the Joint Terrorism Task Force was working together with federal, state and local authorities to assist with the investigation but did not offer further comment.
Authorities on Wednesday were also investigating a package that arrived at the Florida office of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The package was addressed to former Attorney General Eric Holder, but had an incorrect address, so it was returned to Wasserman Schultz’s office, which was listed as the return address.
A San Diego building which houses the offices of California Democratic Senator Kamala Harris and the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper were also evacuated after reports of a suspicious package there.
The White House issued a statement condemning the “attempted violent attacks” and vowed that law enforcement “will take all appropriate actions to protect anyone threatened by these cowards.”
“We condemn the attempted violent attacks recently made against President Obama, President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, and other public figures. These terrorizing acts are despicable, and anyone responsible will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.