Trump to Visit Pittsburgh After Shooting at Synagogue
WASHINGTON — President Trump plans to travel Tuesday to the Pittsburgh community that was the site of a synagogue massacre over the weekend, the White House said Monday.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Trump would make the trip along with his wife, Melania Trump, to express the support of the American people and to grieve with the Pittsburgh community.
“The president cherishes the American Jewish community for everything it stands for and contributes to our country,” Ms. Sanders said, noting that one of the president’s daughters is Jewish, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner is descended from Holocaust survivors.
A gunman who told law enforcement officials that he wanted to kill Jews opened fire Saturday inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill, a heavily Jewish section of Pittsburgh, killing 11 people who were observing the Sabbath and wounding several others.
Ms. Sanders began a press briefing on Monday with an emotional condemnation of the killings and of anti-Semitism.
“This atrocity was a chilling act of mass murder, it was an act of hatred, and above all, it was an act of evil,” she said. “We all have a duty to confront anti-Semitism in all its forms.”
But she also lashed out at the news media, arguing that news organizations were falsely blaming Mr. Trump for the violence.
“The very first thing that the president did was condemn these heinous acts, the very first thing the media did was blame the president,” she said.
The president condemned the shooting over the weekend, calling it an anti-Semitic act and urging the country to come together to root out hate. He has also blamed the media, charging in a tweet on Monday that news organizations incite “anger and outrage” with biased reporting.
Mr. Trump on Monday used the same language used by the synagogue assailant to condemn a caravan of Central American migrants making their way north through Mexico.
“This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!” Mr. Trump tweeted, referring to the migrants. The suspect in Pittsburgh posted a message on social media about the caravan shortly before the massacre, accusing Jews of bringing in “invaders” that were killing his people.