71,000 Sign Letter To Trump: You’re ‘Not Welcome’ In Pittsburgh

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Updated 11 a.m.
Tens of thousands of people have signed an open letter to President Trump telling the president to stay away from the grieving city following the mass shooing at a local synagogue that killed 11, the Washington Post reported.
The letter, published Sunday, was penned by 11 members of the Pittsburgh affiliate of Bend the Arc, a national organization for progressive Jews focused on social justice, according to the Post. The letter had 34,200 signatures as of Monday afternoon.
“For the past three years your words and your policies have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement,” the statement read. “You yourself called the murderer evil, but yesterday’s violence is the direct culmination of your influence.”
It also stressed that the president must stop “targeting” minorities.
“Our Jewish community is not the only group you have targeted. You have also deliberately undermined the safety of people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities,” the leaders wrote. “Yesterday’s massacre is not the first act of terror you incited against a minority group in our country.”
Trump addressed the shooting Saturday, saying that “the hearts of all Americans are filled with grief,” the New York Times reported. But he quickly moved on to partisan political cheerleading and attacks on Democratic rivals.
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
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