WASHINGTON – Pipe bomb-mailing suspect Cesar Sayoc was “insane for a long time” before he launched his package spree, President Trump said on Fox News Channel Monday night.

The president was trying to distance himself from Sayoc, a Trump supporter who allegedly mailed pipe bombs to the president’s political foes, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, former President Obama, Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, Democratic donor George Soros and CNN.

“He was insane a long time before,” Trump told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. “You look at his medical records – he was insane for a long time.”

Trump pointed out how in media reports Sayoc was referred to as the “Trump bomber or something.”

“I was in the headline of the Washington Post, my name associated with this crazy bomber,” Trump said. “But I was the headline … when they got him. They didn’t say ‘bomber found’ they talked about Trump in the headline.”

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had criticized the Washington Post on Sunday for linking Trump to both the spat of mailed bombs and Pittsburgh’s deadly synagogue attack. The front page headline of the bomber story read, “Bomb suspect found an inspiration in Trump.”

Trump pointed out that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wasn’t portrayed as being responsible for the gunman – a Sanders supporter – who shot up a Republican Congressional Baseball Game practice in 2017, wounding House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.)

“They didn’t do that with President Obama with the church, the horrible situation with the church,” Trump continued. “They didn’t do that.”

Obama was president in June 2015, when a white supremacist shot black worshippers at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

“They put my name in the headlines,” Trump said. “It’s – when I say ‘enemy of the people’ – I’m talking about the fake news and it is fake.”