Eleven people are dead after a white male gunman walked in to The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and opened fire Saturday morning, yelling, “All Jews must die.” He carried an AR-15 style rifle and multiple handguns. At least six others, including law enforcement officers were wounded in this anti-Semitic hate crime and terror attack. The Jewish house of worship reportedly was packed for a baby naming ceremony and Shabbat, the Jewish sabbath.
It is a week that began with the discovery of a pipe bomb in the mailbox of liberal philanthropist George Soros, who is Jewish. We now know the suspect, a Trump-loving white supremacist, sent at least 13 other bombs to prominent Democrats. And though it has received less attention, a white man this week shot and killed two Black people in a Kentucky grocery store, after unsuccessfully trying to enter a Black church.
Americans today immediately took to social media to mourn, share their thoughts, support each other and the Jewish community, and to make clear they hold President Donald Trump and his hate-filled rhetoric at least partly responsible for this latest act of terrorism and hate – as they do for the 14 pipe bombs sent this week.
In short, many believe President Trump has enabled an environment of white supremacy, including anti-Semitism, in America, through his hate-filled rhetoric, his incessant attacks, and his repeated refusals to completely denounce hate.
Trump absolutely denies any responsibility, and Friday afternoon, as he headed to another campaign rally, threatening he “could really tone it up,” referring to his rhetoric.
Meanwhile, Trump supporters on the right are insisting – falsely – that the suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting, 46-year old Robert Bowers, is a Democrat or a “leftist,” because he supposedly opposed Trump. Bowers, according to reports, disliked Trump because Trump wasn’t anti-Semitic enough.
But Bowers certainly shared Trump’s hatred of immigrants, especially the migrants fleeing the drugs, gangs, and poverty in Honduras, willing to walk their way to the United States, as The Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale reports:
Dean Obeidallah of The Daily Beast and SiruisXM makes it clear:
The Anti-Defamation League says it believes today’s attack is the “deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States.”
And here’s what some others on social media are saying about today’s horrific anti-Semitic hate crime, and just how much they think Trump is responsible for it: