Challenger. If you look at the spectrum, he is very, very far right and im much closer to the middle. That still makes me appealing compared to him with most of the voters. Every time it matters, shes with the party and against the president and the people of the state. That is what this race is about. This race is about the fact that she is at logger heads with the voters. The city of pittsburgh today is bracing for the first funerals of victims of saturdays synagogue massacre. The Squirrel Hill community will bury Brothers David and Cecil Rosenthal and jerry rabinowitz. President trump will travel to pittsburgh with the first lady as well as ivanka and jared kushner. Why today . He said it worked best for his schedule. He has Campaign Rallies every day this week. For some, it comes too soon. Some say it could distract from the families of the victims. The funerals happening today. Thats why the president is not accompanied by any leaders from congress. Two sources said the top four leaders as well as republican senator pat toomey of pennsylvania received an invitation and all declined. They are not the only ones. Either the mayor of pittsburgh and the county executive plan to be with the president while he is there. The rabbi of the tree of life has no plans to meet with the president , yet he may clear that the president is welcome whenever he likes. Kaitlan collins is in pittsburgh where the president will be. What are you hearing about what the president is going to do and who he will meet with . Its a pretty big question mark for some officials in the white house who have been scrambling to put together a schedule for President Trump when he does arrive. Thats becoming complicated because they have a slew of not only national, but local officials who say either they dont want to meet with the president or its not going to work out. These funerals are starting to get under way today. Thats one reason why the rabbi said he will ont be meeting wi President Trump even though he is welcome to visit when he wants to. The mayor said there is logistical officers to guard the funerals as they are starting. There is other concerns. Whether or not the visit will create protests in the area and they will have to handle as well whether it will get in the way of families traveling to the area. The white house wants to move forward because President Trump is not telling aides, i said i was going and now he wants to stick with the plan and also as you mentioned, the president has a busy schedule starting tomorrow with the Campaign Rallies, doing up to two a day ahead of the midterm elections. They thought if they had the president come visit on wednesday or thursday or later on in the week, it could look bad and the optics could be poor if the president was here mourning and later on went to one of his rallies. The high charged events. They thought they could be criticized that the president waited too long to visit. Two sides the story, but we have an increasing number of people saying today is not the right day for the president to pay his respects. Kaitlan collins, thank you for that report. Today to share their insights. Michael cher with the new york times. Jackie kucinich with the daily beast. Its unfortunate that this is the conversation we are having now. Should he or shouldnt he go. That is whats happening because he is going despite the reality he is facing on the ground. The pittsburgh mayor is a democrat. In these times, we tend to see a lot of bipartisanship or nonpartisanship coming to to pay respects. Heres what he said about the president s visit. I do believe that it would be best to put the attention on the families this week. If he were to visit, choose a different time to be able to do it. Our focus is the city. We will be on the families and the outreach they will need and the support they will need to get through it. Once we get past that, i think there is the opportunity for President Trump to visit. Michael, what are you hearing from your sources about the trip today. Why he is going and what he will do. Kaitlan said it well. For any president this would be a complicated moment. The week before an election is the height of political season. Its hard to get away from partisanship. Trying to fit it in, you have a difficult situation no matter where you did. The grim reality of our country is that president s have had to become consoler in chiefs more and more. President obama, i travelled with him to so many places where he had to go in the wake of tragedy. Not just natural tragedy, but more the man made. The shootings. He went to a lot of rural places and places he didnt win or a lot of places that he was not are inially politically the champion of. Yet, he had a way about him that people on both sides of the aisle tended to say you struck the right note. You struck the right tone. President trumps problem putting aside politics, putting aside partisanship is he doesnt do that well. He is awkward about it and doesnt leave people with a feeling that they are consoled very well. That more than anything is what is causing the problem. Its interesting you say that because im sure you are hearing this as well, that is a wellknown factor by people close to the president. I spoke to somebody in trump world saying why is he going and the response is he does care, hes not just any good at it. I have been with the president when he made these other trips to florida after parkland and las vegas. Likely what you will see is a focus on First Responders, hospitals, both of those trips. He went there and he often because as michael said, he struggles with the empathy, he focuses on the response and the law enforcement. Thats one way he tries to connect. I think its important to note that some of the feelings that are percolating might come after saturday when as these shootings unfolded and came out, the president strongly condemned it, but continued with his schedule, including a political rally where he said he would tone things down, but continued with his standard attack lines. This goes back further than saturday. Charlottesville looms large because it involves the jewish community. The president had a chance to do the right thing and he chose not to. He talked about both sides. I know he tried to fix that since then, but something i heard again and again. There are wounds that are not healed and the president hasnt done a good job trying to fix that. This is the part of the skepticism i think that you hear from the mayor who suggest the president shouldnt come. This community right now is a tinder box and the president is a match. He doesnt lean into unity and hope. It doesnt come naturally to him. President obama did this and president bush was praised after 9 9 11. This is something that a lot of politicians enjoy doing, but President Trump does not. Hope and unity do not come naturally to him. Before an election, he calculated that a strategy of polarization is good for his party. Anything he can say in pittsburgh if he were to strike the right notes, it does not comport. Thats the complication. The point you were all making is generally in times like this, a president is genuinely the president of all people. Goes to console. Goes to be a leader. Goes to give everybody a chance to take a breath and say okay, this is still america and we are still the greatest democracy on earth and so forth. That has been the role of this rabbi. Rabbi Jeffrey Myers who has been extraordinary and has been on cnn a couple of times talking about how a political this is and should be. Listen. Hate doesnt know a political party. Hate is not red or blue or purple. Hate is in all. I turn to them to say tone down the hate. Speak words of love. Speak words of decency and of respect. When that message comes loud and clear, americans will hear that and we can begin to change the tenor of our country. Even in the face of that kind of language, that attempt, as a spiritual leader should do of any religion to tone things down and try to make sense of things that are so horrible, he is getting hate emails. He is. He said how could you do things and be welcoming of the president . He said hate promulgating hate promulgating more hate is not the solution. Yes, of course. I dont think there is a willingness in our political environment for political leaders to take that path. Thats unfortunate. You have seen several democrats in response to trumps pug neighborsness, as you put it. They tried to use his language and it caused things to devolve with both parties. No one really has the moral high ground at this point. There is such a they are choosing to slug back rather than step back. Thats what this rabbi is saying. Thats such a great sentiment to sort of that we could all take a step back. This incident of the synagogue is not happening in a vacuum. Its happening in a political dialogue and debate and argument and fight that goes across all sorts of issues. What does the caravan have to do with it . What does the president s proposal about birth right citizenship or the issues are so intense and so bitter that it seems unrealistic as much as we might hope for it that around this one event, everybody would step back and say we are not going to fight anymore. Especially as you mentioned earlier, its the climate we are and where we are on the calendar. There is no way that they should or would or could stop what they are doing with the elections a week away. The president sees the hard line divicive rhetoric is working so they dont want to slow it down. They want him to do this rally schedule going into the midterms. They want to be out there delivering the messages. There is not a lot of incentive at least from the political to do that. He is making a trip with the pleas and there was an arrest and he did make a strong statement and they want him to get credit for that, but they want him to continue. He is capable of reading a speech where he talks about unity and harmony and condemns the hate vitriol. His presence is raising alarms among people who dont believe he is there. You mentioned charlottesville. I dont believe he disavowed the people when he said there are fine people on both sides. The stuff we dont normally see. The one time he tried to console the mother of the soldier who had been killed and that blew up in his face because the sense that his words to her were awkward and not particularly well received. Thats something that makes it harder for the president and the white house to schedule one of these trips. Thats normally something you do. We also dont know to the mayors request if he reached out to any of the families and see what the familys wishes are. Thats something we havent had an answer to. Before we go to break, i will play what joe biden said about the shooting just moments ago, speaking in wisconsin. Two of my Close Friends belong to that synagogue. 11 of them killed and another five wounded. Folks, this is not who we are. We need to recognize that words matter. That was former Vice President , joe biden. I want to highlight as we go to break, the story of jeffrey cohen, a member of the synagogue who was a physician in charge at the hospital where the man who hearded 11 members of his community was taken. Heres how doctor cohen described what happened when he went to see the man in his hospital room. He said im feeling okay. I introduced myself as dr. Cohen, president of allegheny general and i left. The fbi agent in charge looked at me and said i dont know how you did it. Isnt it ironic that someone yelling in the ambulance and the hospital i want to kill all the jews is taken care of by a jewish nurse and a Jewish Hospital president that comes in to check on him afterwards. This is not just the story about Health Care Professionals doing their job, but the story of something much bigger. Education is the only way to curb hate. Thats what our colleague whose father survived the holocaust said he taught her. Thats what dr. Cohen was trying to do by saying his jewish name to this antiy is might. Jews are not scary. We are your neighbors and nurses and friends. Well be right back. At humana, we believe great things are ahead of you when you start with healthy. And part of staying healthy means choosing the right medicare plan. Humana can help. With original medicare, youre covered for hospital stays and Doctor Office visits when youre sick. But keep in mind youll have to pay a deductible for each. 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As fe we needed it, we have more evidence that immigration is his animate i animati animation. If the president is serious, this is a big if, this would invite a constitutional challenge like how to interpret section one of the 14th amendment. That amendment says all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction there of are citizens of the United States and of the state where in they reside. Im sure you all have the 14th amendment memorized, but in all seriousness, lets talk about the big picture as we start this segment. This is part of it. Its just beating the drum relentlessly on this immigration issue. Obviously because the republicans knew they had a sleepy base and trying to wake them up. They are not giving in, facts be damned. Its an old play and its a play that works. I remember in 2014, talking about how immigrants were going to bring ebola across the border. This is something we heard and you started hearing that strain yesterday. Talking about other illnesses they could be bringing. This is a scare tactic and it gets republicans to the polls. They know it. Yet thats why they are doing it. Because it works. He is playing on fears that people have. I was in arizona talking about voters are issues are motivated by security, security, security. They were not just talking about terrorism, but immigration. The president s rhetoric struck a cord and made a lot of these people more fearful of people crossing the border. Its no wonder they are fearful. Because of the words people are using. Invasion. Its not just the president , but his back up singers at another news network who use that same word. When you look at that bridge loaded up with people, thats called an invasion of our country. This has nothing to do with elections. Calling it a caravan is a misnomer and sickening. Yo ept to see anybody hurt, but i dont want our country invaded by 14,000 people. It was interesting that one fox news host yesterday said its not an invasion. Lets play that and i want to talk about this more broadly. This is our colleague who talked about the fact that this is this truth portal that happened and this is the truth portal. Watch. The migrants, according to fox news reporting are more than two months away if any of them actually come here. But tomorrow is one week before the midterm election. Which is what all of this is about. There is no invasion. No one is coming to get ou. There is nothing at all to worry about. I mean, hes got you know what. Can i take one issue with that . I agree that this is all about the election and the timing and the language of this is designed to do what we talked about, which is to drive up the base. Lets not forget that it is also part of a determined and concerted effort to fundamentally change the way this country treats people who are coming in and who treat immigrants. This president ran on this issue when he came into the white house. He assembled around him and continued to assemble around him for the last two years, a group of people who fundamentally see the issue of immigration and refugees and asylum and all the other pieces in it in a fundamental way in a bipartisan consensus. They are trying to change that. They are trying to change it piece by piece and doing it in little ways and big extravagant ways that have been blocked by the court. While i think its important that we talk about this in an election context and point out the ways in which they are trying to motivate their bases, this is not a kind of effort that is for no reason. They are doing it to change the policies and could have long lasting impact. I think also we know that the president views this as the driving issue that brought him to the white house and the thing that motivates his people above all else. Privately he referred to the caravan as a gift, political. He is trying to find ways to drive people to the polls next week. He talks about this being the election of kavanaugh and the caravan and law and order. People cheer. It really gets these people going. It is having an impact. You were in arizona earlier in the week. I was recently in missouri and one of the most fascinating moments that i think was telling to me about how much this talk about the caravan and Everything Else is penetrating was when Clair Mccaskill, the incumbent democrat, without being asked, in a very red state, she talked about how she stands with the president on immigration. Watch this. The idea of this caravan being used to divide us, i certainly support what the president needs to do to secure the border. Absolutely. He should use every tool at his disposal. Notion that anyone in missouri should thank i dont agree with the president that we cannot allow our borders to be overrun, they havent looked at my record. Thats potent. Democrats have taken notice and feel the need to respond. Th