Jewish leaders say ‘no’ to Trump visit
US president in spotlight as man in court after slaying of 11 worshippers
The man charged in the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre appeared in court shackled to a wheelchair on Monday as some Jewish leaders and the mayor objected to US President Donald Trump’s planned visit to the city on the first day of funerals for the victims.
Robert Bowers, the man accused of shooting 11 worshippers to death at the Tree of Life synagogue on Saturday, sat stony-faced and mostly silent before a US magistrate judge, who ordered him held without bail.
The one-time truck driver, who frequently posted antiSemitic material online and was described by neighbours as a loner, was charged with 29 federal felony counts and could face the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors have said they are treating the mass shooting as a hate crime.
The bloodshed heightened a national debate over Trump’s inflammatory political rhetoric, which his critics say has contributed to fomenting a surge in right-wing extremism in the United States.
“Yes, words matter,” Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, a Democrat, said during a CNN interview on Monday.
Over the weekend, Trump branded Saturday’s shooting an act of pure evil but also angered some by saying the slaying might have been prevented had an armed guard been present at the synagogue.
The White House nevertheless said the president would visit Pittsburgh on Tuesday with first lady Melania Trump to “express the support of the American people and grieve with the Pittsburgh community” The trip would come just a week before the hotly-contested November 6 congressional elections that will determine whether Trump’s Republican Party will retain a majority in Congress.
The Trump administration has rejected the notion he has encouraged white nationalists and neo-Nazis who have embraced him. But a group of local Jewish leaders told Trump in an open letter on Monday he was “not welcome in Pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism”.
More than 27,000 people have signed the letter, organised and posted online by the Pittsburgh chapter of Bend the Arc, a Jewish organisation devoted to opposing “the immoral agenda of the Trump administration and the Republican Party”.
Trump drew bi-partisan condemnation last year for saying “many sides” were to blame for violence that erupted during a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and during a torch-lit march the night before by hundreds of right-wing demonstrators chanting, “White lives matter” and “Jews will not replace us”.
Peduto said he believed Trump should wait until all the funerals were held before coming to Pittsburgh.
Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, said, however, on ABC on Monday that the president of the United States was always welcome to visit.
Bowers, 46, is accused of storming into the synagogue in Pittsburgh’s heavily Jewish Squirrel Hill section yelling, “All Jews must die” as he opened fire on members of three congregations holding Sabbath prayer services.
In addition to the 11 mostly elderly worshippers who were killed, six people, including four police officers.
Two of the surviving victims remained hospitalised in critical condition.