[ad_1]
PITTSBURGH—President Trump visited the Pittsburgh synagogue on Tuesday where 11 people were shot to death Saturday and mourned the victims.
The visit was marked by a protest and a national conversation about the part heated political rhetoric could have played in prompting the shooting and other episodes of violence.
Mr. Trump and first lady Melania Trump lighted candles in the Tree of Life temple and outside placed a stone and white flower on stars erected in memory of those who were slain. They were joined by Tree of Life Congregation Rabbi Jeffrey Myers.
Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who are Jewish, followed at a short distance.
The event was punctuated by cries from protesters gathered nearby. More than 1,000 people marched through Squirrel Hill, the Pittsburgh neighborhood where Tree of Life is located, singing in Hebrew and carrying signs reading “No place for hate” and “We do bridges not walls.”
Several said they thought the president was drawing attention to himself, rather than letting the community mourn.
“He’s my president but he has no solution for this thing,” said Berry Barta, 70 years old, who lives in the neighborhood and said she didn’t want Mr. Trump to visit. “For him to blame the people because they didn’t have security—it’s terrible.”
Mr. Trump also visited University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Presbyterian, where some of the wounded were taken. He spent about one hour and 25 minutes there.
The president was largely isolated in his visit. Congressional leaders opted not to join him, and local and state officials, including Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, stayed away as well.
Mr. Trump was welcomed, however, by members of the Pittsburgh Jewish community who wrote in a letter that “your support of Israel and American Jewry is appreciated, especially in the face of the virulent anti-Semitism our community suffered just days ago.”
Mourners on Tuesday said goodbye to Jerry Rabinowitz, a family physician, and brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal, who were killed Saturday.
Saturday’s shooting came amid several criminal incidents with political overtones. A Florida man was arrested last week in connection with mail bombs sent to a number of Democrats the president has criticized and to CNN, another target of his ire. Authorities are investigating the shooting of two black patrons last week at a Kentucky grocery store as a hate crime.
Mr. Trump’s critics say he has done too little to condemn such acts and has encouraged violence with campaign-trail rhetoric about protesters at his rallies, his ambivalent response last year to racial violence in Charlottesville, Va., and his praise for a Republican congressman who badaulted a journalist, and more.
The White House rejects that criticism.
“The president has denounced racism, hatred, and bigotry in all forms, on a number of occasions,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Monday. “We’ll continue to do that.”
Write to Alex Leary at [email protected] and Kris Maher at [email protected]
Source link
