Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting: Funeral Begins As President Trump Plans Visit to Squirrel Hill

PITTSBURGH – One of the victims' families does not want to meet him. The main members of his party refuse to join him. The mayor explicitly asked him not to come. And yet, President Trump plans to visit the troubled city on Tuesday, as he and his government continue to fuel the anti-Semitism that inspired Saturday's massacre in a synagogue.

The president and the first lady, Melania Trump, are expected to arrive late afternoon, several hours after the first funeral of the 11 victims of mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue. More than 1,000 people have already registered for an event at the same time, declaring Trump "undesirable in our city and in our country".

Congressional leaders of both parties – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (DN.Y.) and minority leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) – all declined the invitation to join Trump during her visit, according to three officials aware of the file.

It was the same for at least one of the families of the victims.

Trump offered to visit the family of 71-year-old Daniel Stein, who had just become a grandfather after being shot at Tree of Life. Stein's nephew, Stephen Halle, said the family refused. This is partly because of the comments Trump made immediately after the shooting, when he suggested to the synagogue to have an armed guard.

"Everyone thinks they were inappropriate," said Halle on Tuesday – the same day his uncle was to be buried – following Trump's remarks on safety. "He accused the community.

"A church, a synagogue, should not be a fortress. It should be a welcoming and open place to feel safe. "

Trump did not announce when he would visit Squirrel Hill – the predominantly Jewish neighborhood where the synagogue is located and where many victims live. Tree of Life has been closed since Saturday's rampage, allegedly perpetrated by a man who proclaimed online that Jews were bringing "invaders who were slaughtering our people."

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The suspect, Robert Bowers, was referring to a Jewish group working with refugees in the United States. Trump has repeatedly described migrants as dangerous invaders, and still done in a tweet Monday. The president has also repeatedly denigrated the "globalists" despite warnings from Jewish groups that the word is a code for Jews in antisemitic circles and appeared in one of Bowers' online speeches.

Trump's supporters, however, describe him as a friend of the Jews, stressing his support for the Israeli government and its strong "perverse" anti-Semitism convictions Saturday.

"I'm just going to pay tribute to myself," Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Monday night. "I'm also going to the hospital to see the officers and some of the people who have been so badly injured. So, and I'm really looking forward to going there. I would have done it earlier, but I did not want to disturb more than it already was. "

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who has called "hatred" in American political rhetoric since some of his followers have been shot dead, has announced his intention to welcome the president. The accused shooter is a declared anti-Semite.

"Hate is not political. It's neither blue nor red, it's neither a man nor a woman, it knows none of these divisions, "Myers told the Washington Post on Monday.

However, former Tree of Life rabbi Chuck Diamond told The Daily Beast that Trump's rhetoric was "horrible". Like Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto (D), Diamond asked the President to postpone his trip until the community has finished mourning.

"I'll ask the president to wait," Diamond said. "I also hope that he will come to offer his condolences after we have buried them and that we will have had the chance to mourn." "

The funeral must be held at least until Friday.

Tens of thousands of people signed an open letter published by a progressive Jewish organization, Bend the Arc, declaring that Trump would not be welcome if he did not denounce white nationalism and stopped "targeting" minorities in his rhetoric and his policies.

"In the past three years, your words and policies have encouraged a growing white nationalist movement," the letter said. "You yourself have qualified the killer for evil, but the violence of yesterday is the direct climax of your influence. "

In addition to his rhetoric, Trump was criticized for his repeated responses to the mass shootings by suggesting that more armed people might have changed the results, even though armed officers were present at several tonnages during recent years, particularly in Parkland, Florida. school, disco in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale Airport.

Trump made the same suggestion after the synagogue attack, although the shooter fired on three police officers before his capture.

The White House woke up on Tuesday morning with a new wave of rumors after the Monday night protest at a protest at which Vice President Pence prayed for the victims of the synagogue with the head of the party. a "messianic synagogue" that urges Jews to accept Jesus as Messiah. – a movement condemned by Jewish leaders as a disguised Christian evangelization.

A Pence assistant told the paper that Rabbi Loren Jacobs had been invited to the Michigan rally by Lena Epstein, a Republican congressional candidate, and that Pence did not know who the religious leader was when he was there. called on stage to deliver a message of unity. "

According to Isaac Stanley-Becker of The Post, Jacobs invoked "Jesus the Messiah" and "Savior Yeshua" – another name for Jesus – at the rally as he offered a prayer for the dead and wounded in Pittsburgh. "God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, God and Father of my Lord and Savior Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, and my God and Father also," he said.

The first funeral – of two brothers, Cecil Rosenthal, 59, and David Rosenthal, 54, who had been to Tree of Life synagogue since their earliest years – is scheduled for Tuesday. Peduto asked the White House to take into account "the will of families" before deciding to visit them and contact them to find out "if they want the president to be here. "

Peduto said "all the attention [Tuesday] It should also address logistical issues raised by a presidential visit, which requires intense security measures.

"We do not have enough public security officials to provide adequate protection at funerals and to be able at the same time to draw attention to a possible presidential visit," Peduto told reporters on Monday.

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The man accused of the attack – the deadliest in American history – made his first appearance in court Monday, two days after the massacre. Robert Bowers, a 46-year-old truck driver, was using a wheelchair in federal court following injuries he sustained in a shootout with police at the Squirrel Hill Synagogue. During his arrest, he reportedly told the authorities that he was trying to kill Jews. He repeated this statement when he arrived at the emergency room at Allegheny General Hospital, where some of the doctors and nurses who were treating him were Jewish.

Judge Robert C. Mitchell read the charges against Bowers, inter alia, for obstructing the exercise of religious conviction resulting in death. Bowers, wearing a blue sweatshirt and gray sweatpants, seemed consistent and alert. He said little, answering "yes" when the judge asked him if he had asked for a public defender because he could not afford a lawyer. He was detained without bail.

It did not appear that Bowers had friends or family members present at the courthouse. The Office of the Federal Public Defender did not respond to requests for comment on the case.

Jon Pushinsky, 64, a member of one of the congregations gathered at Tree of Life, attended the hearing. "It was important to be here to show that our congregation remains strong and that it will stand up even in the face of evil," said Pushinsky.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announced on Monday that Trump and the First Lady planned to travel to Pittsburgh to "express the support of the American people and mourn with the Pittsburgh community." "

White House officials had said earlier in the day that they were pushing the president to cancel a possible Tuesday immigration speech and visit that city instead. The president, who is organizing four "Make America Great Again" rallies this week, is calling for a return to the campaign path, they said.

Trump's critics said that his inflammatory rhetoric had contributed to the rise of extremism and could be perceived by the radicals as a green light for violence. Last week, Cesar Sayoc, a fervent supporter of Trump in South Florida, was accused of sending more than a dozen homemade bombs to people and organizations criticized by Trump.

But on Monday, Trump blamed the media – which he once again described in a tweet as "the real enemy of the people" – the divisions of American society. Sanders echoed this during a tough scrum at the White House.

Selk and Berman reported from Washington. Kayla Epstein and Tim Craig contributed to the Pittsburgh reports. Seung Min Kim, Josh Dawsey, Alice Crites, Julie Tate, Joel Achenbach, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Amy B Wang, Annie Gowen, Felicia Sonmez, Sari Horwitz and Aaron C. Davis contributed from Washington.