Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

It Took CNN Analyst Only 15 Minutes To Posit Theory Trump May Have Incited Michigan Synagogue Attack

[Screenshot/CNN]

CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem suggested Thursday that President Donald Trump’s strikes against Iran may have incited an attack at a synagogue in Michigan.

An armed man rammed his vehicle full of explosives into the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, on Thursday and engaged in gunfire with security. Just minutes later, Kayyem said on “CNN News Central” that Trump’s strikes against Iran would incite attacks against Jewish and Iranian people in the U.S.

“It is something that all of us have been warning about, that this may be a regional war, but it’s going to have global consequences,” Kayyem said.  “And one of them is going to be incitement, radicalization, in particular, as Islamic terrorist groups are utilizing the war like ISIS to go online and to lure people to violence … One, of course, what we’ve seen today attacks against the Jewish community and then, of course, attacks against Iranian Americans. And so all of that is part of this horrible stew of terrorism and incitement that we live in now in a world online and in a world where violence is too prevalent. And so once again, the fact that the sheriff said two weeks, that’s not a coincidental two weeks.”

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The alleged suspect died at the scene while he engaged in gunfire with the security team, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said. There were no other reported fatalities from the incident, though a shelter in place was issued.

The vehicle caught fire after “something ignited” inside, authorities said. Emergency responders found a large amount of explosives in the back of the vehicle.

Bouchard also said a member of the security team was hit by the suspect’s car and went to the hospital to treat his injuries.

The U.S. and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28, which killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of other senior leaders. Officials in the Trump administration claimed the operation’s goal was to prevent Iran from building a ballistic missile program and creating nuclear weapons, though they never identified any “imminent threat” Iran posed to the U.S. 

A preliminary report from Wednesday found the U.S. bore responsibility for the bombing of an Iranian elementary school that killed at least 175 people, most of whom were children, on Feb. 28.