CNN political commentator Errol Louis (pictured above left) actually accused President Donald Trump of directly causing Saturday’s mass shooting of Jewish-Americans in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Eleven people were killed and six others, including four police officers, were wounded after suspect Robert D. Bowers, 46, opened fire at the Tree of Life synagogue. The attack was the deadliest on the Jewish community in U.S. history.
The shooting occurred several days after suspect Cesar Sayoc, a supporter of Trump’s, mailed a string of suspicious packages with crude explosive devices to prominent Democrats and to CNN’s New York City bureau.
It didn’t take long for mainstream media members to pile on Trump and suggest that he bears some responsibility for both criminals’ actions — although several CNN anchors and hosts insisted they weren’t blaming Trump outright and were instead urging him to tone down his rhetoric.
The media pile-on came despite the fact Bowers hated Trump, saying in an internet post, “Trump is a globalist, not a nationalist. There is no #MAGA as long as there is a k*** infestation.”
But Louis, host of NY1’s “Inside City Hall,” dispensed with all of that when he reacted to Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers’ insistence that Trump is welcome to visit Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
“I have received many emails that are not happy with those words,” Myers told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on “New Day.”
“The thing that saddens me is those emails also contain hate. And it just continues in this vicious cycle — hate promulgating more hate, promulgating more hate. And that’s just not the solution. We need to be better than this. We can be better than this.”
Poppy Harlow, co-anchor of “CNN Newsroom,” said, “That really struck me, Errol.”
Louis replied, “Yeah. I mean, that’s a man of God. This is somebody going through the worst trauma of his life who has all kinds of obligations.”
“And yet, throughout it, he sort of clings to the core tenants of his faith, which is to be open, which is to always believe that people can be redeemed, and which is also to not close the door on anybody, even someone who may have caused or contributed to the tragedy — the very tragedy that he’s now trying to live through,” Louis said, obviously referring to Trump.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders blasted CNN’s Jim Acosta and his network during Monday’s briefing, saying it was “outrageous” and “irresponsible of a news organization like yours to blame” both Trump and his administration “for those heinous acts.”
Earlier in the briefing, Sanders said, “The very first thing that the president did was condemn the attacks, both in Pittsburgh and in the pipe bombs. The very first thing the media did was blame the president and make him responsible for these ridiculous acts.”
“That is outrageous that that would be the very first reaction of so many people across this country,” Sanders added.
“The only persons responsible for carrying out either of these heinous acts were the individuals who carried them out.”
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