Former Jewish community leader Gregg Roman said Tuesday that President Trump should visit Pittsburgh following the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue, and that the community would embrace him.
“Any president — Democrat, Republican, Whig, Federalist, whatever you want to call it — their responsibility is to provide solace and comfort to their nation for people on one side of the spectrum politically or the other,” Roman, former director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Pittsburgh, told Hill.TV co-hosts Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on “Rising.”
“And for him to be able to show up to Pittsburgh just three days after the attack, I think that the feeling of most people in that community that I knew for a very long time when I worked there is that they will appreciate a presidential outreach,” he added. “So long as this is about mourning and providing comfort, I think that the community will embrace him.”
The president and first lady Melania Trump are slated to visit Pittsburgh on Tuesday, just days after Saturday’s mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue that left 11 people dead.
“I’m also going to the hospital to see the officers and some of the people that were so badly hurt,” the president told Fox News on Monday. “I really look forward to going. I would have done it even sooner, but I didn’t want to disrupt anymore than they already had disruption.”
However, some oppose the scheduled visit from the Trumps.
More than 57,000 people have signed a petition from the Pittsburgh affiliate of Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, telling Trump he’s not welcome in the city.
The Tree of Life synagogue’s rabbi has said Trump is welcome in the city.
“I’m a citizen. He’s my president. He is certainly welcome,” Rabbi Jeffrey Myers said on Monday.
— Julia Manchester
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