Local politicians joined with activists in Downtown Pittsburgh to deliver a message to President Donald Trump, who is set to visit the city Wednesday.
“It’s been a year since this community issued a challenge to Trump, and it’s been a year that he hasn’t met it,” said Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action. “So today we say again: President Trump, you are not welcome in Pittsburgh.”
That challenge, given in the form of an open letter last year from Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish activist group, was for the president to keep out of Pittsburgh until he “fully denounced white nationalism.”
That call came in the days following the Oct. 27 attack on the Tree of Life synagogue that left 11 congregants dead. A new letter issued Sunday called for the same.
“Not only has President Trump failed to meet our challenge of last year,” Cotler said, “he’s only further emboldened and incited white nationalists that threaten all of us.”
A spokesperson for the White House could not immediately be reached for comment.
Supporters held signs with the names of places that have experienced mass violence: Poway, El Paso, Charlottesville, and more.
Trump is set to give the keynote remarks at the Shale Insight conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Wednesday’s visit comes four days before the one-year mark of the Tree of Life attack.
Bend the Arc supporters, joined by politicians including state Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, gathered outside the convention center to deliver their message.
“Today we reject the attempts of our president, other politicians or anyone else who seeks to divide us and destroy the gentle covenant we made to each other in the hours, weeks and months since our hearts were broken,” Frankel said. “Today, let us stand for kindness.”
