This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. The white house announcing the president and the first lady will visit pittsburgh tomorrow to pay their respects in the wake of the antisemitic attack that killed 11 people worshiping in a synagogue. Theyll be joined by ivanka trump and jared kushner. The mayor of pittsburgh had urged the white house to delay the trip since tomorrow is the first funeral. Progressive jewish leaders also pushed back, calling on President Trump to denounce White Nationalism before coming to pittsburgh. In the wake of all this the president is refusing to take any blame for his tone and rhetoric. Lets discuss now. Rabbi chuck diamond is here. Hes the former rabbi at tree of life. Also dr. Jonathan winkle, who lives in the neighborhood of the tree of life synagogue and knew several of the victims. Thank you so much for joining us. I am so sorry that you guys are having to deal with this. Our hearts go out to you. I cant believe that you even can come on tonight. So thank y
the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities. global financing, levers of power. classic anti-semitic innuendo. correct, jeffrey? yes. because what that commercial did was to reverse the actual relations of power in this world and present the united states, the most powerful country in the world, as instead a victim of nameless global interests which were associated in that commercial with some leading jewish personalities. now, then candidate trump must apparently was ignorant of the history of the 1930s and 40s and apparently was unaware that this kind of rubbish was standard fare in nazi propaganda. it was a shocking commercial. and as soon as i saw it, my fear was that if he were elected president that sooner or later something like what happened in pittsburgh would happen.
emboldened and they feel energized and i think there are a few reasons why. number one, the political environment contributes to it. when leaders fail to lead. and when they allow hateful rhetoric to fester and they don t call it out when it happens. so we just have to acknowledge that this is an incredible problem. jeffrey, let s talk about your piece in the washington post. and here s what it s called. the piece is called trump doesn t understand how anti-semitism works. neither do most americans. why doesn t trump what doesn t he get? he doesn t get that anti-semitism and the most dangerous forms of anti-semitism rests on a conspiracy theory. and the conspiracy theory historically has been that though jews are small in number they are very powerful and very evil. and in a secularized form in the 20th century when the jews were said to control politics, economics, and the media and
that was the story of course that the nazis told about the jews starting world war ii, the president doesn t understand the danger of conspiracy thinking. because if he understood the danger of conspiracy thinking he would not have said that thousands of muslims cheered when the world trade center collapsed. he would not have run that last commercial of the 2016 campaign that presented lloyd blankfein and janet yellen and george soros and their photos. jeffrey, i want to run that ad since you re talking about it and then i ll let you continue on the other side. here it is. for those who control the levers of power in washington and for the global special interests, they partner with these people that don t have your good in mind. it s a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth, and put that money into
for more information on how to be prepared and keep your family safe, visit pge.com/safety. the president and the first lady, melania trump, are heading to pittsburgh tomorrow to pay their respects to the victims of the massacre at the tree of life synagogue, the worst anti-semitic attack in american history. but with anti-semitism on the rise, does president trump understand what s happening and how to fight it? let s discuss it now. jonathan greenblatt is here. he s the ceo and national director of the anti-defamation league. and jeffrey herve, history professor at the university of maryland. he s also the author of the jewish enemy: nazi propaganda during world war ii and the holocaust. gentlemen, thank you so much. and just my condolences. i m not sure if you know people there, but it s just an awful,