NY Daily News – President Trump plans to visit Pittsburgh on Tuesday to honor the victims of a mass shooting at a local synagogue, the White House announced Monday, bucking a request from Jewish leaders in the city who say he’s “not welcome” until he unequivocally condemns racism and stops “targeting” minorities.
Trump and First Lady Melania will travel to Pittsburgh to “express the support of the American people” to the families of the 11 Jews killed in a horrific anti-Semitic shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue on Saturday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a briefing.
“For the past three years your words and your policies have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement,” 11 members of the organization’s Pittsburgh chapter said in a letter urging Trump to stay away. “You yourself called the murderer evil, but yesterday’s violence is the direct culmination of your influence.”
The letter had been signed by more than 30,000 people as of late Monday. It states Trump is “not welcome in Pittsburgh” until he fully denounces white nationalism; stops “targeting and endangering all minorities;” ceases his “assault on immigrants and refugees,” and commits himself to “compassionate, democratic policies that recognize the dignity of all of us.”
Sanders maintained Trump bears no responsibility for the synagogue shooting, even though the suspected shooter recently perpetuated the President’s unsubstantiated claim over social media that “unknown Middle Easterners” are part of a caravan of Central American migrants hoping to seek asylum in the U.S.
“That is outrageous that anybody other than the individual who carried out the crime would hold that responsibility,” Sanders said.
She also insisted Trump’s frequent attacks on the free press and repeated references to Democrats as “evil” had nothing to do with the mail bombs sent to CNN’s Midtown newsroom and to the homes and offices of 12 high-profile critics of the President last week. The suspect in that case, Cesar Sayoc, is an adamant Trump supporter who espoused his adoration for the President over social media and frequently echoed his rhetoric.
