hello, and welcome to inside politics. i m dana bash. we begin with breaking news. the man who massacred jews at a pittsburgh synagogue is now staring down the death penalty. a jury just found that shooter guilty on multiple counts nearing 40 counts so far, they are still reading in that courtroom. it includes capital offenses and hate crimes. i want to go outside the courtroom. that s where we have danny freeman live in pittsburgh. danny, what are you hearing so far president bush. reporter: as you said, we re getting live reports from inside the courtroom. so tar we have been through 40 counts, including special instructions, they have all been found guilty. and that is including the 22 capital ompss. he faces 63 federal charges, already convict ed of 41 now. and then also the use and discharge of a firearm to commit murder during and relation to a crime of violence and possession of a firearm. and also convictioned on all of the hate crimes he was accused of earlier. i
but the threat of violence also looms directly over the jewish community like never before in recent american history. attacks on jewish institutions, they are up 61% from 2020 according to the anti-defamation league. just yesterday, the fbi warned of what it describes as a broad threat to synagogues in new jersey. the new york times reports that as a result of a warning, the new york police department immediately announced it had stepped up its monitoring to ensure the safety of every area that encompasses our jewish citizens and synagogues. of course, we all know that none of this is happening in a having vacuum. it s bubbling through sports, culture and our politics. they re the anti-semitic outbursts on social media by kanye west. there s the refusal by kyrie irving to disavow a post he made linking to a documentary filled with conspiracy theorys about jewish people. he s been suspended for at least five games. a statement from the team reads in part kyrie irvin
hatred for immigrants. he has been radicalized reading things about how jews were helping immigrants come into the country and how that was a danger that motivated him. the prosecution pushed back hard against this. he went into a synagogue. he targeted jews. he killed jews. he said in many of his online post thags his goal was to kill jews. one of the interesting aspects of the case is he was motivated by hatred for a hebrew immigrant aid society, which has a long history dating back of help ing millions of people from the holocaust. that hatred for that heroic group is part of what spurred this individual to commit this heinous act. the jury has now spoken. the jury has declared that the reason he did this was because of hatred for jewish people. standby. i want to bring in jonathan
green blat, the head of the antidefamation league, who has been monotorting anti-semitic acts that have been on the rise. your reaction to this verdict? i think this is a solemn day. it s a sad day. it s a sad day for our country. but it s also an important day. it s justice served. i think all of us in the american jewish community welcome the jury s verdict. it is a sign that, as you said, this attack, the deadliest anti-semitic massacre in american history, was the result of hate, and it should have no place, and the people that commit such crimes need to be accountable for their acts.
demanding truth and accountability for january 6th. still with us, jo ann freeman and jonathan green blat. i want to quote something from your brand new book on page 115 of the book called it could happen here. you reference a famous speech from president lincoln in which scanning the horizon for potential threats lincoln dismissed the idea that a foreign power could stamp out american democracy, but there was another danger worth ruminating over, americans themselves. we kind of think that once we passed the civil war americans themselves was not going to be our threat, but here we are in 2021 and now in 2022 and americans themselves still seem to be our most prominent threat. i think it s true, ali. this is the greatest democracy the world has ever noun. many ways the most robust and resilient nation seen in history. and yet is indeed i think the threat within which worries me the most. i mean, in the last five years