78-year-old Joe Biden, on Thursday, told Jewish leaders that he spent time at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh following the October 2018 mass murder of 11 people there, however, the synagogue told the New York Post he never visited.
“I remember spending time at the, you know, going to the, you know, the Tree of Life synagogue, speaking with them,” Biden claimed in a virtual address ahead of the Jewish holidays Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Joe Biden claims he visited the Tree of Life synagogue:
Here’s Joe Biden talking about visiting Tree of Life synagogue after the massacre there. The executive director of the synagogue says Biden is lying — he never visited. Totally normal. pic.twitter.com/GcFjU2u50i
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) September 2, 2021
New York Post reported:
Barb Feige, executive director of the Tree of Life, said that Biden did not visit the synagogue in the nearly three years since the anti-Semitic attack.
In a phone interview, Feige, executive director since July 2019, said firmly that “no” Biden didn’t visit, even before taking office when he had a lower public profile as a former vice president and then-Democratic presidential candidate.
Then-President Donald Trump visited the Tree of Life three days after the worst anti-Jewish hate crime in US history. Trump was joined by prominent Jewish members of his administration, including his daughter Ivanka Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, per the Post.
Leftwing CNN also debunked Biden’s false claim that he visited the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
“President Biden is taking heat for falsely claiming that he visited the Pittsburgh synagogue attacked by a mass shooter, when he never actually went there,” CNN’s Kate Bolduan reported.
CNN: Joe Biden claimed he visited the Tree of Life synagogue “attacked by a mass shooter, when he never actually went there” pic.twitter.com/4picqsrPYl
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 3, 2021
CNN further fact-checked the claim in a video, with reporter Daniel Dale stating that Biden claimed an event happened that was “just false.” CNN did not find any news articles that could corroborate Biden had visited
“CNN has found no news articles, or anything else, that would serve as evidence that Biden did visit,” Dale said. “This was the president telling Jewish leaders in advance of the high holidays that he remembered ‘spending time’ at the site of an anti-Semitic massacre, going to the site of the anti-Semitic massacre. And there is just no evidence this is actually true.”
Strange story: President Biden told Jewish leaders today that he visited the Tree of Life synagogue, site of worst anti-Jewish attack in US history
But synagogue says he didn't visit. WH has not responded to requests for comment on the discrepancy https://t.co/mMPoVuDuD1
— Steven Nelson (@stevennelson10) September 2, 2021
Snopes — a left-leaning “fact-checking” site — reported:
Did Biden Visit Tree of Life Synagogue? FALSE. Despite Biden’s claim that he spent time at the Tree of Life synagogue after the mass shooting, we found no evidence to substantiate that, and the executive director of Tree of Life says Biden never visited.
