That’s it. That was the reason. Bowers is a violent anti-Semite. His social media posts show a man consumed by loathing of Jews and spouting variations on shopworn anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

“I just want to kill Jews,” Bowers said, according to federal prosecutors .

Robert Bowers, the man accused of killing 11 in cold blood at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday, has been perfectly clear about his motive. The question is whether Americans — and our political leaders — are capable of listening.

Like Dylann Roof, who made his hatred for blacks explicitly clear before killing nine at a black church in South Carolina, there’s no ambiguity here.


But to acknowledge his motive is to acknowledge that we, as a country, have a problem. It’s to acknowledge that anti-Semitic incidents rose by 57 percent last year, according to the ADL. It’s to acknowledge that we need to do something about bigotry and violence, and the hateful tone emanating from the White House.

And to avoid that discussion, the Trump administration is shamefully trying to avoid confronting the Pittsburgh massacre for the anti-Semitic act that even its accused perpetrator said it was.

Kellyanne Conway, the president’s counselor, tried to blame the killing on “anti-religiosity” more generally. That fits into a preferred right-wing narrative — that religion is under siege in America, where you supposedly can’t even say Merry Christmas anymore. It’s also claptrap: Bowers didn’t shoot Presbyterians, didn’t inveigh against Methodists on social media.

Changing the subject seems to be a way to avoid the conversation that needs to happen in America. A real leader would try to bring the country together after a tragedy. Instead President Trump is deflecting his own responsibility for the country’s poisonous political climate.


No, the incitement from Trump isn’t direct. But when the president pats the “alt-right” on the back, like he did after attendees at a racist rally in Charlottesville, Va., rally last year chanted “Jews will not replace us,” the message is clear.

Congressional Republicans have hidden behind every excuse to avoid pointing out the obvious link between the president’s tone and acts of hate and violence. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, speaking in Boston on Monday, barely mentioned the Pittsburgh shootings and made no connection to the president’s behavior.

But public officials should be able to connect the dots between the president’s statements and hateful acts like the Pittsburgh shooting.

If they can’t, they’re worse than wrong: They’re complicit.