Washington Free Beacon editor in chief Matthew Continetti said Wednesday on MSNBC's "MTP Daily" that commentators have a role to play in improving public discourse and easing political divisions in the United States.
Acknowledging that there are examples of political violence and incendiary rhetoric on both the political left and the political right, Continetti said, "What that says to me is there's a cultural ferment not, I think, among the population at large, but really among people who are addicted to politics, who are kind of glued in 24/7 on their social media, on their cable news, and they have entered a process of radicalization that opens them up to conspiracy theories and makes them more likely to act on these horrible impulses."
"I think commentators have a role to play in this, too, to kind of be a little bit more empirical, a little bit more modest, a little bit more moderate, and also to fight, as you've pointed out, kind of conspiratorial thinking with the facts," Continetti continued. "So I think we all have a role to play, and the fact that we don't know where it ends should be greatly disturbing to everybody."
Continetti's comments on political radicalization come amid an investigation into who sent bombs to the homes and offices of several prominent political figures in recent days. Potential explosive devices have been sent to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, billionaire liberal activist George Soros, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former Attorney General Eric Holder.
The device addressed to Brennan was sent to the CNN office at the Time Warner Center in New York City, forcing the network to evacuate from the building.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the government will get to the bottom of the suspicious packages.
"We're extremely angry, upset, unhappy about what [we] witnessed this morning, and we will get to the bottom of it," he said.