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Oct. 27, 2018 / 5:01 PM GMT / Updated 6:28 PM GMT
By Jonathan Allen
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump lamented the “hate in our country” after the killing of at least eight people in a shooting rampage at a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday and asserted that better security at the temple could have prevented the massacre.
“They had a maniac walk in and they didn’t have any protection and that is so sad to see,” Trump said at Joint Base Andrews in the Maryland suburbs before he departed for a campaign swing in the Midwest. “If you take a look at it, if they had protection inside the results would have been far better.”
Trump placed the shootings in the context of a long series of violent acts nationally and globally.
“It’s a terrible, terrible thing what’s going on with hate in our country, frankly, and all over the world,” the president said. “It’s a violent world. You think when you’re over it, it just goes away but then it comes back in the form of a madman, a wacko.”
Trump later told reporters he is considering cancelling a “Make America Great Again” campaign rally that is scheduled for later Saturday in Illinois.
Police have detained a suspect, Robert Bowers, 46, of Pittsburgh, according to four senior law enforcement officials. Four police officers were injured, according to Wendell Hissrich, the city’s public safety director, who spoke at a news conference.
Trump also said that the death penalty should be more swiftly applied to mass murderers.
“I think they should stiffen up laws, and I think they should very much bring the death penalty into vogue,” he said.
Asked about his close relationship with the National Rifle Association, Trump emphasized his view that having armed guards at the temple might have made a difference — and said it might be necessary to have them at all houses of worship in the United States.
“I hate to think of it that way,” he said. “It’s certainly an option.”
Vice President Mike Pence addressed the murders during an appearance in Las Vegas.
“What happened in Pittsburgh today was not just criminal, it was evil,” Pence said, adding praise for the “swift response” of law enforcement. “There is no place in America for violence or anti-Semitism.”
Pence asked all Americans to pray for those killed or injured in the shooting and their families.