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NYT’s Paul Krugman Blames Trump For Deadly Synagogue Shooting

REUTERS/John Altdorfer

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Michael Bastasch DCNF Managing Editor
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New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman suggested President Donald Trump was to blame for “white supremacist terrorism” shortly after Pittsburgh police arrested a suspect in a deadly synagogue shooting.

Linking to an article in which Trump is quoted warning of “violence” if Democrats won more seats than Republicans in the midterm elections, Krugman sarcastically tweeted “[b]ut none of the white supremacist terrorism has anything to do with Trump, oh no.”

Just before that, Krugman retweeted reporter Laura Rozen, who said suspected synagogue shooter Robert Bowers blamed a Jewish resettlement organization for the caravan of migrants from Central America moving towards the U.S.-Mexico border. (RELATED: Shooter Opens Fire At Pittsburgh Synagogue, Multiple Fatalities Reported)

Krugman said Bowers’ claim was “what Steve King was endorsing when he interviewed with an anti-Semitic Austrian web site” and was “implicit in much of the ‘George Soros financed the caravan’ stuff — which is basically what Trump is selling.”

Soros, a Hungarian-born business mogul and major Democratic donor, is Jewish. As a child, Soros hid from the brutal Nazi regime by posing as the Christian godson of a Hungarian official, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.

On Saturday morning, suspected shooter Bowers allegedly opened fire in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing at least 10 and wounding more, according to law enforcement officials.

The suspected shooter surrendered to police after a shoot-out that wounded at least three police officers, according to reports. Journalists on Twitter were quick to scour Bowers’ social media pages, finding anti-Semitic posts.

Bowers also expressed dislike for Trump, saying in at least one post he did not vote for the president. About two days before the shooting, Bowers claimed Trump was controlled by Jews.

Shortly before the shooting, Bowers posted on social media: “Screw your optics, I’m going in.” In that same post, he blamed the resettlement group HIAS for bringing “in invaders that kill our people.”

Trump administration officials were quick to condemn the shooting and express their condolences for the victims.

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