Trump, first lady to meet with grieving families in Pittsburgh

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and the first lady will go to Pittsburgh on Tuesday to grieve with those suffering following Saturday’s shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue that left 11 dead.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders announced the trip during a Monday press briefing peppered with back-and-forth about the president’s and the news media’s roles in stoking violence and hatred in America.

“The very first thing that the president did was condemn” both the synagogue shooting and a series of pipe bombs sent to the homes of top Democrats, including former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Sanders told reporters. “The very first thing that the media did was blame the president.”

Reporters countered with questions.

■ Does Trump “have any concern at all that his words could inspire or provoke troubled people to do awful things?”

■ “Does the White House believe this president has done enough to denounce white nationalism?”

■ Will the president, who has bashed pipe-bomb targets Hillary Clinton and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., stop using that kind of language in light of the fact that these individuals were targeted?

Sanders countered that the same Democrats have bashed Trump and that the president is no more responsible for violence committed by his followers than Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was for the shooting last year of a GOP congressman by one of his supporters.

In Pittsburgh and on social media, Americans pointed fingers at each other as the guilty parties in political discourse.

Earlier Monday, Trump on Twitter faulted “inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news” and reiterated his claim that the “Fake News Media” are “the true Enemy of the People.”

Bend the Arc: Pittsburgh, the local affiliate of a progressive political Jewish organization, posted a letter with more than 43,000 signatures that told Trump, “you are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you stop targeting and endangering all minorities.

“For the past three years your words and your policies have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement. You yourself called the murderer evil, but yesterday’s violence is the direct culmination of your influence,” the letter’s authors wrote.

But Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers told CNN, “The president of the United States is always welcome.”

Others faulted Trump for not projecting a tone that can bring the country together.

“This president will never offer comfort, compassion or empathy to a grieving nation. It’s not in him. When questioned after a tragedy, he will always be glib and inappropriate,” Patti Reagan, daughter of President Ronald Reagan, wrote in the Washington Post. “So I have a wild suggestion: Let’s stop asking him. His words are only salt in our wounds.”

On Saturday the president ordered that the flag over the White House and federal buildings be flown at half-staff until sunset Wednesday.

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.