Former Synagogue Leader Responds To Trump’s Post-Massacre Hate Speech

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The United States is continuing to reel from the mass murder of 11 Jewish people gathered at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh over the weekend. The murderer’s actions have been connected to President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, since Trump pushed the idea that outside political interests are funding a migrant “caravan” currently making its way to the United States and the shooter believed those interests to be Jews.

In light of these issues, there’s a growing apparent anger with the president on the part of concerned members of the Jewish community. Former Tree of Life President Lynnette Lederman asserted during an appearance on CNN this week that personally, she does not welcome Trump to her city. He’s said that he plans to visit the site of the massacre — for some reason — although details of the apparently impending trip are not yet apparent.

In the meantime, Lederman told CNN’s John Berman:

‘I do not welcome this president to my city. He is the purveyor of hate speech. The hypocritical words that come from him tell me nothing. We have some very very strong leadership in this city… We have people who stand by us who believe in values, not just Jewish values, but believe in values, and those are not the values of this president.’

Watch below.

The jump from “mainstream” right wing rhetoric including that of the president to the Pittsburgh gunman’s ideology isn’t that far at all, as she indicates.

Trump has, for one, openly embraced violence time and time again throughout his rise. He’s suggested that “Second Amendment people” take care of Hillary Clinton and lauded a Montana GOP Congressman for bodyslamming a reporter, an assault for which he was held criminally liable.

He’s directly pushed for the use of force to deal with the supposed threat posed by non-whites, too, seeking to send the military to the nation’s southern border to address incoming migrants. He already got the National Guard mobilized, despite the fact that it’s not as though there’s an incoming riot. There’s a large collection of the people who already often come to the U.S. seeking asylum — that’s it. Overall, undocumented border crossings continue their downward trend over the years, concurrent to that.

In the midst of that situation, the fact remains — Trump is the one who has accepted violence as part of the solution plan for dealing with the non-existent threats he makes up to hold his base together. Now, we’re here, with 11 people dead because a hateful person apparently took Donald Trump’s words to heart, a fact that won’t be erased by any number of platitudes from the administration.

Speaking Monday, Lederman was responding to a letter signed by progressive Jewish leaders in Pittsburgh that pushed for the president to stay away considering how deeply he has mired himself in white nationalism and bigotry.

Sunday, they noted:

‘You have also deliberately undermined the safety of people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities. Yesterday’s massacre is not the first act of terror you incited against a minority group in our country.’

Despite these facts, Trump will no doubt continue on down his current path.

Featured Image via Screenshot from the Video