Pittsburgh synagogue shooting: Trump tweets and Robert Bowers due in short after 11 killed at Tree of Life

PITTSBURGH – At the end of a weekend that redefined concepts of religious hatred in the United States, a grieving Rabbi Jeffrey Myers directly linked Saturday's massacre at his Tree of Life synagogue to the rhetoric of U.S. politicians.

"It starts with speech, "Myers said to loud applause at a Sunday-evening vigilance by two U.S. senators. "It has to start with your leaders. My words are not intended as political fodder. I address all equally. Stop the words of hate. "

Two hours after the rabbi's speech, President Trump absolved himself of responsibility and once again blamed others for the nation's troubles.

"The Fake News is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, Conservatives and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our Country," Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday night. "Actually, it's their Fake & Dishonest reporting which is causing problems far greater than they understand!"

With that, a weekend that marked the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S.

Robert Bowers – an alleged anti-Semite who faces more than 50 homicide, assault and hate crimes charges in the massacre.

[The lives lost in the Tree of Life synagogue shooting]

The rest of the week will be marked by funerals for the 11 people killed inside the body of life.

Robert Bowers, "onedingo," and Trump

At the center of everything is Bowers: a 46-year-old truck driver with few apparent friends, and who left almost no impression on Pittsburgh, which investigators finished searching Sunday.

A law enforcement source told The Washington Post on Monday that investigators found three handguns and two rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition after executing a search warrant at the residence. That's at least four weapons recovered at the synagogue.

"We would have small talk, but he just seemed like a normal guy, and that's the scary part," Bowers's next-door neighbor Kerri Owens told The Post.

Bowers appears to have another life under the online alias "onedingo," posting on an uncensored social media platform called that is an online haven for extremists.

Signing his posts with Bowers 'name, onedingo compared to Trump' s "Make America Great Again" movement can not succeed as long as Jews "infest" the country. He also posted slurs against women who had relationships with black men, and often used them, and used the n-word nearly 20 times.

The White House press secretary has Bowers "a coward who hated President Trump because @POTUS is such an unapologetic defender of the Jewish community and the state of Israel. "The Gabions suggest a feeling of disillusionment with the president, whose daughter converted to Judaism, but who is often accused of stoking anger, hatred and even anti -Semitism in his political rhetoric.

In February, onedingo posted a meme of a Monopoly Chance card with superimposed images of Trump Hillary Clinton dragging to jail.

In May, he wrote that he did not "vote for Trump nor own or even wear a maga hat."

In October – as Truth was repeatedly tweeting about a caravan of refugees and migrants heading through Central America to the U.S. border – oneding to a Jewish group 's efforts to hold Shabbat dinners for refugees.

The group "likes to bring invaders that kill our people," he wrote before the Pittsburgh massacre. "I can not sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in. "

The attack, the deadliest on Jews in U.S. history, targeted a synagogue that is an anchor of Pittsburgh's wide Jewish community, about a 25-minute drive from Bowers's home. Police and FBI investigators say Bowers walked in during Saturday morning with an AR-15 rifle and three Glock pistols, and spent the next 10 minutes or so gunning down any worshipers he came across.

Myers, the rabbi, said at night that he was praying with a dozen early worshipers when the gunman appeared at the door.

"I ran through the back of the sanctuary, up the stairs," he told an NBC reporter afterward. "I went up into the loft choir. I heard him execute my congregants. I did not watch. I could not watch it. "

Police pursued Bowers in a running gun battle to the third floor synagogue. When they captured him, the author of a complaint, the quiet man who had left no impression on his neighbors and raved like his online persona.

"They're committing genocide to my people," Bowers allegedly told police. "I just want to kill Jews."

Hate speech

On Saturday, Trump said the massacre was an "evil Anti-Semitic attack" and "an assault on humanity." But he has said little about Bowers, and shown little interest in joining a national debate on the country's hostile or loose political climate. gun rules helped enable the attack.

Trump suggested Saturday that the synagogue should have had armed guards. Then he tweeted about a baseball game, called one of his political rivals to "crazed and stumbling lunatic," and by Monday he was once again stoking fears about the migrant caravan, calling it "an invasion of our Country."

In between, the president assured his followers that the "great anger in our country" was the fault of "The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People. "

[An attack on a tight-knit Jewish community has left it shellshocked]

Democrats on Sunday said Trump's incendiary attacks on rivals have created fertile ground for those inclined towards extremism.

So did Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, who recorded a massive spike in anti-semitic incidents in the United States in 2017 – the first year of Trump's presidency.

"Trumpism legitimizes the bigots to come out of the sewers and gives them a platform to play on," Foxman told the Jerusalem Post, "He has said the right things on antisemitism this week." But he needs to change the rhetoric his policies, which gives millions of bigots a rationale for their bigotry. "

Since the shooting, more than 25,000 people have signed up in the United States.

Pittsburgh city councilwoman Erika Strassburger, whose district includes the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, attended the Sunday night vigil and said she was just overwhelming grievance, but also weariness, in some cases, a desire to turn anger into action.

"It was a more general frustration of, 'When is this hateful rhetoric going to stop?' And that [our discourse] it seems to be further inflamed by elected leaders, "she said, without naming anyone in particular. "When will the hate end? When will we be able to come together as a country? "

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the letter.

White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway responded to this request from the President of Tree of Life synagogue, who has said she considers Trump a "purveyor of hate speech. "

"I know that she's very grieving stricken, I can imagine, and my heartfelt condolences go to her and everybody in that congregation of politics," Conway said on CNN. "Many people are welcoming the president to go to help heal."

Funerals and court

Bowers was reportedly released from the hospital Monday after being shot by police before his capture. Judge Robert C. Mitchell at 1:30 pm Monday.

He faces at least 23 state charges, including homicide, attempted homicide and aggravated assault against police officers. He faces an additional 29 federal charges accusing him of civil rights and hate crimes.

Federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania have begun the process of seeking the death penalty for Bowers, a Justice Department spokesperson said Sunday. The process is typically lengthy, involving input from the victims before the final decision is made by the attorney general.

Funerals for the 11 victims are also expected to begin this week, though it's unclear whether the criminal investigation will delay them.

The dead included a 97-year-old woman, a husband and wife, and two brothers.

Selk, Boburg, Tran and Wang reported from Washington. Kayla Epstein in Pittsburgh and Mark Berman, Alice Crites, Sari Horwitz, Annie Gowen, Wesley Lowery, Julie Tate, John Wagner and Matt Zapotosky in Washington.

Read more:

'I looked up, and there were these dead bodies': Witness describes the horror of synagogue massacre

Trump says he will travel to Pittsburgh after deadly synagogue shooting

How Gab became a supremacist sanctuary before it was linked to the suspect Pittsburgh