TRUMP NOT WELCOME IN PITTSBURGH

Themancharged in the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre was brought into court in a wheelchair on Monday, as some members of the Jewish community and others objected to President Donald Trump’s plans to visit, accusing him of contributing to a toxic political climate in the United States that might have led to the bloodshed.

With the first funerals set for Tuesday, the White House announced that Trump and first lady Melania Trump would visit the same day to “express the support of the American people and to grieve with the Pittsburgh community” over the 11 congregants killed on Saturday in the deadliest attack on Jews in US history.

Encouraged hatred

Some Pittsburghers urged Trump to stay away.

“His language has encouraged hatred and fear of immigrants, which is part of the reason why these people were killed,” said Marianne Novy, 73, a retired college English professor who lives in the city’s Squirrel Hill section, the historic Jewish neighborhood where the attack took place.

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, a Democrat, said the White House should contact the victims’ families and ask them if they wanted the president to come.

“If the president is looking to come to Pittsburgh, I would ask that he not do so while we are burying the dead,” Peduto said.

“Our attention and our focus is going to be on them, and we don’t have public safety that we can take away from what is needed in order to do both,” he added.