October 26, 2018
Thom Carroll/PhillyVoice
Sen. Cory Booker speaks at the Camden Rising concert at the BB&T Pavilion in 2016.
Sen. Cory Booker, of New Jersey, is among the latest liberal public figures to be a target of suspicious package containing a pipe bomb.
The explosive was intercepted at a Florida mailing facility in Royal Palm Beach, addressed to Booker's local office on Riverside Drive along the Camden, waterfront.
The package was discovered Friday morning, along with an identical package addressed to former director of national intelligence James Clapper. The package intended for Clapper was found at a Manhattan post office, destined for the CNN New York offices where Clapper works as an intelligence analyst for the network. It was the second potentially explosive package addressed to CNN this week.
Friday morning's discoveries are the latest packages containing explosives sent to figures who have been publicly critical of President Donald Trump and/or right-wing politics. Other targets this week have included former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Joe Biden, and others. The packages all used Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's congressional office in Sunrise, Florida, as the return address.
Police and federal investigators were on the scene at Booker's Camden office Friday morning. The office shares a building with the Delaware River Port Authority, PSE&G, and the New Jersey Division of Taxation.
Authorities are still investigating whether the pipe bombs were capable of causing significant harm, or if they were created to stir fear. As of Friday morning a total 12 packages had been mailed. And while the potential explosives contained timers and batteries, the Associate Press reports that none of the pipe bombs were rigged to detonate upon opening.
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