It's a sad part of the modern state of U.S. politics that, whenever a tragedy or criminal act takes place, there's a rush by partisans to determine how they can best use the event against political opponents. We've been seeing that play out this whole week given the news of the mysterious pipe-bomb mailings.

[READ: Pipe bombs scare: Here's what we know]

As of this writing, there have been 12 targets of pipe bombs, all Democrats: former President Bill Clinton and his wife former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, former Vice President Joe Biden, former Attorney General Eric Holder, former CIA Director John Brennan (via CNN), former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Sen. Cory Booker of California, Rep. Maxine Waters of California, actor Robert De Niro, and billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

They were all aimed at fierce critics of President Trump, most of whom called for aggressively resisting his administration and his Republican enablers, and many of whom are regular subjects of his taunts. This fact has provided an opening for critics of Trump to point the finger at him for the corrosive effect of his rhetoric — and to demand that he take some sort of responsibility for the mailings.

Trump and his supporters, meanwhile, have pointed the finger back.

There is now a theory being given oxygen among some on the Right that the bombings are some sort of liberal hoax: essentially, a "false flag" operation to pin the blame on Trump for attempted terrorist attacks ahead of the midterm elections.

Trump, for his part, suggested looking toward the media: "As part of a larger national effort to bridge our divides and bring people together, the media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories."

[Related: Trump: Others can criticize, but when I do I'm 'not presidential']

Here's the thing. Thanks to the alert work of postal workers and law enforcement officials, we've avoided a situation in which anybody was physically harmed. There is obviously no place in politics for sending bombs.

But the reality is, at this point, we have no actual idea what person or group is sending these devices, let alone any sort of grasp of the motivation. We know who they were addressed to, but for the most part anything beyond that is pure speculation.

Once we learn more about what is actually happening, it may be appropriate to discuss culpability. But right now, it's premature to do anything but let investigators do their jobs and hope nobody gets hurt.