Uncertain welcome awaits Trump in Pittsburgh
Donald Trump and his wife Melania were to travel to Pittsburgh overnight to support the city after 11 people were shot dead.
President Donald Trump and his wife Melania were to travel to Pittsburgh overnight (AEDT) to support the city after 11 people were shot dead in the worst anti-Semitic attack in recent US history.
The White House announced the trip yesterday amid a mounting row over whether Mr Trump’s fierce rhetoric at campaign rallies and on Twitter had been partly responsible for stoking extremist fires ahead of mid-term elections next Tuesday.
“The President and first lady will travel to Pennsylvania to express the support of the American people and grieve with the Pittsburgh community,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in Washington.
Robert Bowers, the man accused of the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue, made a first court appearance yesterday, in a wheelchair after being wounded during a gunfight with police. Pasty faced, the 46-year-old spent only three minutes in court, making little comment other than to respond “yes” and “yes, sir” to procedural questions from the Pittsburgh federal judge.
Mr Bowers allegedly told police after his arrest that he “wanted all Jews to die” because he said they were inflicting genocide on “his people”. Social media posts attributed to Mr Bowers indicate that, in addition to hating Jews, he is also virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim.
The judge scheduled his next court appearance for Thursday.
A presidential visit to the site of a tragedy is not unusual but in the increasingly febrile atmosphere ahead of the mid-terms, where opposition Democrats hope to take control of at least one house of congress, Mr Trump’s trip is mired in politics.
Mr Bowers’s alleged shooting spree came in the same week that authorities arrested a Florida man, a Trump supporter, on suspicion of mailing more than a dozen homemade bombs to the President’s opponents and critics.
The two incidents have led to accusations that Mr Trump has fanned violence through his tweets and speeches lambasting immigrants, opponents and journalists in hardline language.
Mr Bowers had reportedly referred on social media to anger over several thousand impoverished Central Americans trying to walk north to the US, a favourite target of the President’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Jeffrey Myers, a Tree of Life rabbi who was present when the attack started, told CNN that “the President of the United States is always welcome”. But also speaking on CNN, a former president of the synagogue, Lynette Lederman, told Mr Trump to stay away, calling him a “purveyor of hate speech”. Outside the synagogue, meanwhile, a trickle of mourners left candles and bouquets.
Eleven white wooden stars were laid out, each inscribed with a name of the slain, together with a pink heart and a verse from a psalm: “The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
Even there, the prospect of a Trump visit was causing discord.
“Not if he’s going to divide us further,” said Arlene Wolk, a neighbour. “This is not a political event, but personally I’d just as soon he not come.”
Adam, another local, said the alleged murderer’s rampage should not be politicised and that Mr Trump’s visit would change nothing. “I don’t think this guy did what he did because of the President,” he said. “It’s just hate.”
Mr Trump struck back yesterday, saying critical journalists were in fact the ones feeding extremism across the country.
“There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news,” Mr Trump tweeted. “The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame of Anger and Outrage.”
Ms Sanders used a press conference to complain about what she said was almost constant critical media coverage, saying “90 per cent” of all presidential coverage was negative.
AFP
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