feels like it would betray voters. so i think, you know, reading bob woodward's book, you see that the rational people in the white house that were from the republican establishment, they have almost all left, and it's down to people who are original trump campaign ak coe lates. >> thank you so much for joining us. i appreciate that, and our coverage of the shooting in pittsburgh will continue right now. these incidents usually occur in other cities. today the nightmare has hit home here in the city of pittsburgh. >> this was an anti-semitic act. you wouldn't think this would be possible in this day and age. >> i went to the day care there when i was really little on the third floor where we heard he holed himself up. >> they heard the shots and the mom and dad, friends of mom and dad, and son they just all ran

downstairs i guess and barricaded themselves in the basement. >> my kid's away at school, and he's watching this on the news. he's got all his friends he's worried about, family. i can't tell him everybody's okay because i don't know. >> we simply cannot accept this violence as a normal part of american life. these senseless acts of violence are not who we are as pennsylvanians. they're not who we are as americans. >> hello, everyone, i'm alex witt with the breaking news as we come on the air this hour, 7:00 p.m. in the eastern and 4:00 p.m. out west. there are new details coming in now about the shooting at the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh. as of now, authorities have confirmed 11 deaths, six others are injured including four responding officers, two police officers, two s.w.a.t. team members. the shooting is now being investigated by the fbi as a hate crime, and right now the

pittsburgh community is uniting tonight in the wake of this tragedy. you can see hundreds have gathered at a vigil to honor those who lost their lives. again, 11 people woke up this morning, went to shabat services at the tree of life synagogue never to leave or go home again. the authorities have identified the gunman as robert bowers a 46-year-old man taken into custody now and transported to a hospital with some unspecified injuries. officials say the shooter could be charged for these heinous acts as early as today. we do expect him to be charged with federal hate crimes. the president has condemned the killings as being pure evil and wicked. he is now holding a campaign rally in illinois as we speak. here's what he had to say at the top of his remarks in murfreesboro. >> the jews have endured terrible persecution, ask you know that. we've all read it. we've studied it. they've gone through a lot, and those seeking their destruction

we will seek their destruction. when you have crimes like this, whether it's this one or another one on another group, we have to bring back the death penalty. they have to pay the ultimate price. they can't do this. they can't do this to our country. we must draw a line in the sand and say very strongly never again. >> the president talking about bringing back the death penalty when, in fact, we have many states across the country including pennsylvania, which already recognizes the death penalty. let's go now to nbc's ron mott. he's on the scene in the squirrel hill neighborhood, which was the site of so much tragedy some nine hours ago. ron, i know it's a sobering evening there. the weather doesn't help at all because it is dismal and gray, which must reflect the emotions of everybody there in that

community behind you? >> reporter: this rainy dreary night sort of reflects the mood in this city. this city is in shock, and especially for the folks who live in this neighborhood in squirrel hill. it's a largely jewish neighborhood and this synagogue is where this carnage took place. tree of life is an anchor of this community, and three congregations celebrate their faith at this synagogue, two of them have just come together, and this sort of a trend in the jewish faith where congregations are coming together to share resourc resources, to share love for one another, faith in god. what happened this morning was horrific. we spoke to a gentleman whose wife was walking by the synagogue when this all unfolded, and she is obviously very shaken up, was not injured, but was just too disturbed to talk to us tonight. that is what this community is dealing with, just the horrific idea that a man could walk into a synagogue. people celebrating their faith and be gunned down in this way. as we mentioned, there are three congregations there celebrating.

we believe that the shooting took place in the third floor classroom. there were also people down in the basement, ask onnd once the heard the commotion they sheltered in place. one of the questions among the many is did he have any previous understanding of the layout of the synagogue. did he know specifically where to go? because there was to be a scheduled classroom taking place this that room where the shooting happened this morning, but it was canceled. but the room was still being used for other purposes. there was a baby naming ceremony. authorities tell us that no children were involved in any of the injuries or fatalities here. and as you mentioned, alex, the first responding police officers who got here probably saved a lot of lives because the gentleman apparently was on his way out of the synagogue and then actually retreated back indoors. he injured two of those officers and then s.w.a.t. units were shortly arriving thereafter, and two of those officers were also injured. all four of those police

officers are said to be stable tonight, which is indeed great news. one of the two others who was injured is a gentleman who sustained some very serious critical injuries. we don't have an update on his condition since the 4:00 eastern time press conference, but, again, to state the obvious here, this community is reeling from the violence that took place here early this morning shortly after the services got underway around 9:45. the shooting, the first calls coming in about ten minutes thereafter. a horrible day here on the east side of pittsburgh. >> a very horrible day. there certainly will be an upending the to schedule that you know. there are oftentimes school age congregants within jewish communities who will then go on sunday mornings for further instruction, to their sunday school class as well. i should imagine the tree of life synagogue and any classes will not be in session tomorrow given that it is still probably a crime scene in terms of the investigation. ron mott, thank you very much for wrapping things up for us there in the squirrel hill neighborhood. nbc's matt bradley is

joining us live from that vigil that is taking place in pittsburgh. there looks like to be several hundred people there behind, and most of them with umbrellas standing in the dreary, drizzly weather there. talk about what you're seeing and the people with whom you're speaking? >> reporter: we've been here for a little over 30 minutes. it's been hugely emotional. there was singing. there was chanting. there was praying. there were more than a thousand people here of all faiths. as you mentioned, this is in front of a presbyterian church near the synagogue that was attacked this morning. i'm here with one of the organizers. she's a high school senior, cody murphy. she's one of the main organizers of this march. i wanted to ask you, what inspired you to do this? >> it happened really close to my house, just a block away, so i was kind of aware the whole time that it was happening, and you just feel kind of helpless. i ran over to a friend's house to make sure she was okay, and we could hear the shots, and we could see the people running, and we could see all the police officers, and we just felt helpless, and we felt like we

had to do something sfwlo. >> reporter: and it was you and a couple of friends, all high school students, all young people. >> yes. >> reporter: you managed to bring together the entire community. did you expect this many people to come? >> no. i have no idea how this many people heard about it. >> reporter: how do you think they heard about it? >> we posted about it on social media. we heard that some tv stations like reported on it and some radio stations, so but i definitely was not expecting this many people to come out. >> reporter: it was quite an accomplishments really impressive actually having this many people. i was standing here, and it was so emotional. i was choking up, and the crew was choking up the whole time listening to people talking about this community. it really is people of all faiths from this community coming together. it's a tight-knit neighborhood. this is where mr. rogers lived and died. this is kind of mr. rogers neighborhood. it really lives up to that ideal of just a really beautiful american neighborhood. and again, just a really trying

time for this tight-knit place. alex. >> an ideal idyllic neighborhood. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is joining me with more. we had hoped to get those charges filed. what's the latest on that? >> still waiting for them. it's not clear whether they're going to be charged, filed today or tomorrow, but they will will federal hate crime charges. we had been told that earlier, and then attorney general jeff sessions said in a public statement that they would be filed shortly calling the crime utterly reprehensible, and the charges that they're looking at here as we understand it are basically a charge that makes it a crime to interrupt a federally protected right singling people out because of their, among other things their religion, so clearly the right of worship, of free expression of religion, and that crime carries the maximum

penalty of death. that's the charge that's going to be filed, death upon conviction, of course. in the meantime, authorities are telling us a little more about how they think this happened today. they say that robert bowers walked into that synagogue about 10:30 this morning. let's see if that's the right time. no, sorry, just before 10:00, at 9:54, and that's when they got the first calls. the police officers arrived one minute later, and they say that he was armed with a semiautomatic weapon, although many people say that they heard automatic fire. some witnesses say they heard automatic fire, and some of the police referred to it as automatic fire. we're going to have to see if he modified a gun illegally to make it fire automatically or used a bump stock, which as you recall is what the gunman used in the las vegas shooting to make those semiautomatic rifles fire as though they were automatic. the point there is you can fire off a lot more rounds more

quickly if you do that to these rifles, and also three hand guns. we don't know which weapons he used in the shooting. that's going to take some time to determine. owe talked about that synagogue being opened again. that's going to be days from now. the work that goes into reconstructing a shooting like this when it's so chaotic, that takes a long time. that synagogue is not going to be open, my guess is, for several days. he was in there for 20 minutes, came back out, engaged the police. the police chased him back in. he was hiding, and in these two exchanges of gunfire with the police, four officers were wounded, and he was wounded, said to be now in fair condition with multiple gunshot wounds. among the other two people who were injured, one was a 60-year-old woman. she had what they described as soft tissue injuries, and the other person that you heard ron make a reference to is a 70-year-old man who was wounded in the torso, and as of three

hours ago was said to be in critical condition, alex. >> pete, can i ask you with regard to the charges that will come. these will be filed in federal court, but can't you also file in state court as well? >> absolutely. and it may be that the charges are filed in both places. i suspect that what's happening here is -- and this is just a guess based on how these things have worked in the past -- is you have a local police department that is simply overwhelmed dealing with its own community, and more than happy to have the federal help in doing the work of compiling these charges, putting together a charge to get him held and get into court. whether he's ultimately tried in federal court or state court probably will be determined down the road. the state, of course, can file separate charges, can file murder charges. there's no straight-up murder charge in the federal system, but there is this hate crime

charge that can be filed. this gets the legal process started. it gives them authority to continue to hold him pending trial and whether he's ultimately tried on state or federal charges will be resolved down the road. >> pete williams, as always many thanks for your insight and expertise, in particular in a story like this. right now i'm joined on the phone by zachary weiss, who attends the tree of life synagogue. fortunately zachary was not there this morning. however, his father was, and so first question to you, zachary with my thanks for joining me. is your father okay? >> well, thank you for the platform and the opportunity. unfortunately that we're able to talk it has to be over this story, but yes, my father is 100% safely home and okay. >> tell me what your father has spoken about. i'm sure you've asked him many questions about what the experience was like? >> sure, well, the first thing that happened was, as a synagogue it's a place of

worship and it's welcome to everyone, and it's understanding that the front door was unlocked. the gunman walked himself right in, and all of a sudden you heard a loud noise and a couple congregants to investigate because it could have been a senior citizen that had a hard fall. it could have been a heavy piece of equipment or material that just fell, but then you heard a couple more of the same sounds, and there was no mistaking that it was an active shooter situation, and the synagogue has been through something called alice, which was an alert system in case there was an active shooter and a protocol that several synagogue key members including my father went through that training for last year. it really helped. my father was helping out the rabbi. he was a little under the weather, so they both actually were able to help guide the congregation into a safe place, and there actually are two other

synagogues that take residence in the tree of life synagogue. one of them actually was having a bris at the time. my dad actually went down there and made sure they were hidden safely. when he went back upstairs during that timetable, he estimated he was about five feet away from casings that were being fired. he did not get a viewpoint of the gunman at any time during this time period, and then when he went back up to his congregation, there was nobody that was in harm's way, so they evacuated. >> zachary, we are of the understanding that the shooting took place in a third floor classroom as it has been described. you're familiar, certainly, with the tree of life synagogue and the various aspects of it. does that make sense to you? do you know what would be going on on a shabbat morning on the third floor in one of those

rooms? >> the synagogue itself, the way it was laid out with the three congregations. the one was on the main floor by the pavilion. the bris was all the way downstairs and then the tree of life service itself was in the main area. the extent of what i know is what my father told me and my mom was actually on the scene fairly quickly somewhat close by, and my dad had evacuated at that point when he believed that everyone was safe. so unfortunately i cannot speak to where geographically he moved about the synagogue, but it's entirely plausible that the gunman was able to successfully move his way around since at the time i'm sure there might have been a lack or complete lack of security to stop his progress during which time active shooting you have to hide as best as you can. i was fortunate, when i actually was the one that told my mom that it happened, and at first we called my father, and then we said, no, maybe we shouldn't do that. if there's an active shooter and he has his phone, that might be giving away his location. >> right, yeah.

so we hung up the phone. and my mom quickly drove down in her leopard print pajamas, and she drove down and two minutes into her drive my dad called on the custodian's phone and that he was safe and to let my mom know. and unfortunately she had forgotten her phone, so i went from oh, my gosh this is happening is my dad okay, to oh, my gosh, maybe my mom is in more harm's way than my dad is and oh, my gosh, are they safe. finally i was able to get my mom's password right, and i was able to call the custodian, and they were both safe and went safely home. i remember giving my dad the biggest longest hug i had ever given him and the first words out of my mouth were i love you. >> you have me reduced to nearly tears. it was probably only the matter of a few minutes but it probably seemed like eternity. before i let you go, may i ask you to comment on a statistic we had gotten here at msnbc in that more than 80% of those in your

community there, squirrel hill residents said they had some concern or were very concerned about the rise of anti-semitism in the area. many of them having reported incidents of anti-semitic experiences, insults, stereotypes and attacks of the like. are you of that 80%? can you speak to those concerns? >> i think what i can speak to is i think we're in a community that needs to love each other and love thyself and to honor thy neighbor and i don't think generally speaking that's happening, and i'm assuming that's why the 80% might be happening. many of my efforts are about the 11 that unfortunately have passed on and won't be able to see their families tonight, and that weighs on my mind. i'm sure that certainly might even increase the statistic beyond the 80% point you pointed out as well. >> which is a tragedy in itself. zachary weiss, thank you so very much for phoning in.

blessings on your family and thankful that your father is okay, and given the horrific concern you must have had today. thank you for your time. >> thank you, i appreciate it. we're going to take you all to murfreesboro, illinois, that is where the president continues at a campaign rally. he's been speaking for a bit over an hour now starting off with comments about the pittsburgh shooting. let's play a little bit of that. >> we have to bring back the death penalty. they have to pay the ultimate price. they have to pay the ultimate price. they can't do this. they can't do this to our country. we must draw a line in the sand and say very strongly never again strongly never agai take your razor, yup. alright, up and down, never side to side, shaquem. you got it? come on, get back. quem, you a second behind your brother, stay focused. can't nobody beat you, can't nobody beat you. hard work baby, it gonna pay off.

you got this. with the one hundred and forty-first pick, the seattle seahawks select. alright, you got it, shaquem. alright, let me see. in bed? try fleet liquid glycerin instead. relief in minutes, not hours. every time, on your time. now $1.00 off with sunday's paper. guaranteed relief or your money back. before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, claire could only imagine enjoying chocolate cake. now she can have her cake and eat it too. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn?

for all-day, all-night protection. the full value oft wyour new car? you'd be better off throwing your money right into the harbor. i'm gonna regret that. with liberty mutual new car replacement we'll replace the full value of your car. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty ♪

unstopand it's strengthenedting place, the by xfi pods,gateway. which plug in to extend the wifi even farther, past anything that stands in its way. ...well almost anything. leave no room behind with xfi pods. simple. easy. awesome. click or visit a retail store today. . >> do you know if there were any children inside during these services? >> it's possible.

i don't know what they had scheduled this particular week. some weeks they have a children's service. i hear stories there was a bris, a circumcision, which may bring in more families and more younger families into the building. i don't know much more than that. it's possible that there were some children there. again, i don't know for sure. >> we're hearing unconfirmed reports this was fueled by hate. >> that's what it sounds like. there's a lot of anti-semitism out there. there's a lot of hate out there. you can just look at the news every day. it's sobering that it's touched our community. >> those comments made earlier today actually while the shooting was underway, and the investigation to try to clear that whole synagogue of any further rampages. i'm joined right now by cheryl stunboe who joins me there in studio from seattle. cheryl survived the shooting at a jewish federation building there in seattle. that happened, what, some 12 years ago, cheryl, so i can imagine in the spate of the incidents of today, those 12

years came flooding back very quickly to you. talk about your reaction when you heard about what happened in pittsburgh at the synagogue? >> yeah, alex, i woke up to texts from friends asking me if i was watching the news and went downstairs with a pit in my stomach just knowing that something terrible was going to be happening when i turned on the television. and to find out that it was a jewish synagogue and that people were dead and wounded, it brought back, again, a flood of memories and a lot of grief. >> i should think. cheryl, tell me what happened to you 12 years ago. talk about the incident. >> sure, well, i was working at the jewish federation of greater seattle. i was the director of marketing, and it was a friday afternoon in july, a beautiful day, and it was getting close to the end of the workday, and i was listening for the voice of my 14-year-old

niece who was coming to get a ride home with me, and instead of her voice, i heard an angry stranger's male voice coming from our reception area, and i stood up from my desk to step into the hallway to see if i could help, and our receptionist was sliding down the hallway against the wall and came right up to me and said, cheryl, there's an angry man here with a gun, and he was right there. when she said the word gun he was right in front of us. he had followed her and come down the hallway and he was holding the gun up to our faces. >> i'm actually just trying to process this scene right now, and i'm absolutely horrified. what then happened? >> well, he was shouting angry words about israel and jews and how he was only there to make a point, but he was waving a gun around, you know, in our faces while he was doing this, and he was -- his voice was getting louder and louder and angrier and angrier by the second. i looked around and thought what can i do?

i'm standing in a hallway in an office. the only thing i could think is we needed to get somebody on the phone immediately to 911, so i just shouted as loud as i could call 911, and he started shooting, and he just went around in a circle shooting his handgun over and over again. >> were you injured, cheryl? >> i was. he shot me at point-blank range in the abdomen with the 9 millimeter glock that he was carrying. >> and so you had to fight for your life, certainly. how long did it take? do you remember how long it took for you to get out of that situation and get into safety with law enforcement and eventually to be treated for that injury? >> well, i know because of the trial and hearing the sequence of the event that it was just a few minutes before i escaped out of the building and law enforcement got me into a paramedic van and taken to harborview medical center, but at the time it felt like forever, and then i was at

harborview medical center for six weeks over the following three years total i underwent 20 surgeries. >> and how are you doing today, cheryl? >> i'm doing well, thank you. i'm in kind of daily pain from adhesio adhesions. the whole left side of my torso just has a lot of scarring internally that pulls and tugs every day, but it's much better than the alternative, and i'm grateful to be here. >> we're grateful to talk to you as well. notably today 11 people have lost their lives. there are six that are injured. we know that there is one certainly fighting for his life. he was the eldest of those injured there from the congregation with the beggunsho wound to the torso. what thoughts and sentiments would you want to share to those who are survivors like you or to the families of their loved ones who were lost today? >> well, i would hold on to hope and hold onto your faith and fight with everything you've got for your lives and for your

health and realize that you have a huge community around you, both in the jewish community and the american community who are hoping and praying for you, and i hope you come out on the other side okay. >> and those thoughts and prayers should never cease as they should not for you as well. thank you so much. and i'm sorry for the things you still have to endure by your description today, but i do thank you for joining us and sharing. best of luck to you cheryl. thank you. joining me right now, brian levin director for the center of hate and extremism. he is also a former nypd officer and sadly, we are reunited once again here to discuss a tragedy of this nature. you may have heard my conversation earlier with john than greenblat who's the head of the adl who talked about the rise of hate crime incidents. he gave me a statistic that was pretty sobering. he said in 2016 it has risen by their count 34% from the previous 15 years or so where he

just used his hand to say it was sort of in a downward trend, if you will. 2017 even higher, 57% of an increase in hate crimes. speak to that. is that the kind of -- are those the kind of stats that you find as well that you research ask that you talk about at cal state san bernardino? >> very similar. actually, his research is 57% increase in incidents which include non-criminal, but let's be clear here. this is the worst attack on the jewish community probably in american history, certainly as long back as we have data. this is the worst, and one of the worst attacks on a house of worship. the sutherland springs, texas, attack was more poernlersonally motivated to family members. bottom line, what the adl saw, they've been keeping this data since '79, and that was the biggest increase in all hate incidents which include crimes

since that time. interestingly hate crimes as enumerated by the fbi against j, ews had generally been on a downward trend until about 2014. since then they went up from the low 600s to the high 600s about a 12% increase from 2014 to 2016, lastly, anti-semitic incidents -- i'm sorry, anti-semitic hate crimes are in the top three for nearly all of the major american cities here in the united states, and we saw 2017 overall for hate crimes to be the fourth consecutive increase in those large cities, and the highest number in at least a decade. we are perhaps going to see overall for all hate crimes a third consecutive year of increases when the fbi comes out with their data next month. we saw 12.5% and in new york city, for instance, which has

the latest data that we can get through 2018, we see an additional increase in hate crimes, although here for instance in los angeles, they're down slightly. bottom line is we have seen an increase in anti-semitic incidents on the web. we've seen a tremendous spike, particularly in the 2.5 years leading up to and after charlottesville in megarally os of white nationalists. the worst months generally corresponded to tensions in the middle east, except for one month back in '94 when schindler's list came out. it is a very concerning list for all of us who collect data on this. >> may i ask you before i let you go because you've given us a ton of information here which i appreciate. is there something that you can point to as a reason for the increase in crimes? is there a direct correlation to something, or is there a

presumptive correlation to something or an influential correlation to something? >> great question. most of the offenders used to be what my friends jack levin called thrill offenders. they appear to be shrinking, and they're not as violent as the smallest type of offenders called the mission offenders. they commit a tiny percentage of the hate crimes, but when they act, they are more lethal. what i think we're seeing now with the rise of white nationalism and after charlottesville these groups imploded and their leadership are in disarray. these loners in small cells represent the biggest threat, and this guy make no mistake is a nazi. i looked at his page. he's a nazi through and through. what we have to do is to have political leaders stand up. one quick thing, bear with me. election time 2016 was the worst month for hate crime in 14 years. my colleagues and i have found, and the day after election was

the worst day, that's 2016, the day after the election when we had an anti-muslim bomb plot that was the worst day since 2003 and the worst day of this event. our research has shown not always but sometimes statements by leaders correlate to fluctuations in hate crime. when they'redy visi divisive th up. leaders, please, please, i am begging you. words matter. >> let's hope that our leaders are listening. thank you very much for your time. good to see you. >> thank you, alex. >> we're going to have the latest coming up on the investigation into the pittsburgh shooting. meanwhile, president trump just finishing up a campaign rally in illinois on this very somber day. we're going to take you there live. g to take you there live you move in, geico could help you save on renters' insurance! man 1: (behind wall) yep, geico helped me with renters insurance, too! um... the walls seem a bit thin... man 2: (behind wall) they are! and craig practices the accordion every night!

says the guy who sings karaoke by himself. i'm a very shy singer. you're tone deaf! ehh... should we move on to the next one? it's a great building! you'll love it here! we have mixers every thursday. geico®. it's easy to switch and save on homeowners and renters insurance.

carla is living with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast geico®. it's easy to switch and save cancer that has spread to other parts of her body. she's also taking prescription ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor, which is for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive her2- metastatic breast cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole was significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus letrozole. patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant. common side effects include low red blood cell and low platelet counts, infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests, diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite.

carla calls it her new normal because a lot has changed, but a lot hasn't. ask your doctor about ibrance. the #1 prescribed fda-approved oral combination treatment for hr+/her2- mbc. nothing's more important than a good bedside manner. i don't know how to say this. it's okay, doc. give it to me straight. no, you don't understand, i don't know how to say this. i'm just a tv doctor. they also know you should get your annual check-up. it could save your life. schedule a check-up with your doctor, know your four health numbers, and start taking control of your health today. cigna. together, all the way.

at 37 past the hour, welcome back, everyone. we are continuing our ongoing coverage of what is being called the deadliest attack on the jewish community in the history of the united states. that is according to the antidefamation league. we now know that 11 people are dead following the mass shooting at a pittsburgh synagogue. six more are injured. that would include four police officers. we're also now learning more about the suspected gunman rob bowers who was also injured. he is now in custody and receiving treatment for his

injuries. according to authorities, bowers is 46 years old. he is a pittsburgh resident. he also frequently posted anti-semitic conspiracy theories online. he also made a specific threat against jews mere hours before allegedly conducting this attack. president trump condemned what happened at a rally in the last hour. >> this evil anti-semitic attack is an assault on all of us. it's an assault on humanity. it will require all of us working together to extract the hateful poison of anti-semitism from our world. this was an anti-semitic attack at its worst. the scourge of anti-semitism cannot be ignored, cannot be tolerated, and it cannot be allowed to continue. we can't allow it to continue. >> the president there at the top of that rally, which we can

see by our good friend geoff bennett's position there is now over. it looks like it is far emptier than it was some two hours ago. there you are in murfreesboro, illinois. so talk about what you heard from the president, the reaction from the crowd, and anything else you'd like to say, geoff. >> reporter: hey, there. the president wrapped up his speech about five or ten minutes or so ago. when he took the stage earlier this evening, you saw him read from prepared remarks. he rose to the moment and he spoke to the day's unspeakable tragedy. he said we have to extract the evil of anti-semitism. he called it a scourge that cannot be allowed to continue. he said it must be condemned everywhere. then he also talked about calling for the death penalty, offering something of a policy prescription to the day's events. take a look at what he had to say. >> we have to bring back the death penalty. they have to pay the ultimate price. they have to pay the ultimate price. they can't do this. they can't do this to our

country. we must draw a line in the sand and say very strongly never again. >> reporter: and right after that, alex, as the president's mind and eyes strayed from the teleprompter he sort of defaulted into the kind of political speech he gives at typical political rallies. he attacked by name his democratic adversaries. he took aim at maxine waters and elizabeth warren and nancy pelo pelosi. he also talked about immigration with this caravan, we call it a caravan but it's a slow-moving human tragedy of people fleeing violence and poverty from central america. he also talked about this big announcement coming next week. nbc news has learned that the president still expects or we expect him to announce a major immigration-themed speech. we're tracking that for tuesday at the white house. the speech that he gave here today, even as many politicians certainly those in pennsylvania today canceled their planned campaign events, the speech here today really showed once again

how the president has this uneasy embrace of the fullness of the traditions, the norms the conventions that come along with the american presidency. >> he's at his political best at these rallies, and i believe that i added that i wished he would be at his presidential best at these rallies, particularly on a sobering day like today. geoff bennett, thank you very much for the report. joining me now vaughn hillyard. he's in las vegas. i understand that you sat down with the vice president, with mike pence a bit earlier today in an nbc news exclusive interview. i should think he would have been aware of the shooting, and did he address that at all in his comments with you? >> reporter: yeah, good afternoon, alex. we're here in las vegas where the vice president was earlier today, and as these events were unfolding he was prepared to hold a campaign event. that event was delayed by about a half an hour. he addressed the events here in pittsburgh right at the top of his comments.

it was after that event when we spoke with him. i asked him about pittsburgh, but i also zeroed in on the conversation about the way in which president trump and him, vice president pence, have contributed to political rhetoric in this country, not only over the last weeks but months in the two years since the vice president joined the ticket back in the summer of 2016, and whether their type of rhetoric has contributed to the lack of civil discourse in this country. this is part of what the vice president told us today. >> the american people have no tolerance for attacks against innocent people, but we also have no tolerance for assaults on our fundamental freedoms and pr freedom of religion. >> the president referred to a congresswoman as wacko, he's called people low iq, he's called people horseface from athletes to the prime minister of canada. i guess the question here is have you ever asked him to please not use that type of language when referring to other people in the case of civil discourse in this country? >> everyone has their own style,

and frankly people on both sides of the aisle use strong language about our political differences, but i just don't think you can connect it to threats or acts of violence. it's about issues of the day and politics. i think debate is healthy in america. i think freedom is healthy in america. i think we need to be very careful in any way to connect the kind of violent behavior we witnessed in pittsburgh today, the threats of violence against prominent americans we witnessed in the pipe bombs. what happened in sutherland springs, texas, what happened here in las vegas to the political debate. >> reporter: alex, i channlleng the vice president specifically saying he made a speech here this morning calling for unity across the country, but just yesterday on the campaign trail the vice president referred to the left as the mob as he called it. at the same time much like the comments that the president gave

today, yesterday at an efrvent the white house, he directly called out george soros, and at that white house event people started chanting lock him up. george soros is one of those 14 individuals who had a bomb mailed to his home. i said to the vice president, how is that any indication that you guys are actually calling for unity, and he said this is part of as he said quote, a vigorous debate and the quote freedom of speech and as you just heard him say in no way is the rhetoric that this white house engages in is that reflective of the violence we have seen over this last weak. the other part i asked him, when it came to the name calling, i asked him specifically if he has been complicit with this white house and engaged in that, he said he and the president have different ways, different tacts of which they communicate their messages. at the same time they're going to be driving forward and driving ahead and this is the message of this white house, and he did not call out the president or his rhetoric or that of his own. alex. >> well, to your point, vaughn,

it would seem his demeanor may be different than the president but he seems to be ideologically in lock step with president trump. thank you very much, very good questioning of the vice president. joining me now editor and chief of "politico" magazine. blake, on this sobering day, we can't help but look at what has happened and wonder about the political fallout from all of this. we saw these package bombs, 14 of which were sent to 12 different individuals around the country this week, and you see not taking responsibility for allowing the atmosphere under which these bombs happened being taken by the president and also by the vice president would seem according to vaughn hillyard there. do you think that this may be a little bit different today only because it was a jewish synagog synagogue, and we know how close the president is with his jewish son-in-law, jared kushner, who is not only a cultural but also

a practicing man of the jewish faith. his duaughter has converted to judaism, they are raising their grandchildren in a traditional way. do you think we may hear something different from the president on this incident? >> well, i think the white house is certainly concerned about the political fallout from the pipe bomber, or the would be pipe bomber and from this attack today, and you can see it in the way that he's locking down his rhetoric at the rallies. you didn't see him go off script to talk about this, and so i'll be curious to see what happens at 3:00 a.m. this morning or 6:00 a.m. sunday morning when he gets behind twitter and gets to express what he feels. i do think -- i've never heard the president express any anti-semitic viewpoints himself, but i think a lot of people are pointing to the atmosphere that he has fostered. a lot of people are pointing to the rhetoric about george soros.

that could be seen as an anti-semitic insinuation, and certainly when you're talking about hordes of people streaming towards the u.s. border in the way that the president talks about the caravan of migrants, it certainly stirs up a lot of racist sentiments, and so i think that's concerning. >> absolutely. you heard our colleague geoff bennett, perhaps, talk about teeing up a big announcement that the white house has promised to deliver perhaps on tuesday and perhaps on immigration. have you heard that as well, that it will be on immigration this next week, and do you have any idea what that might consist of? >> i haven't heard anything differently, but certainly immigration is one of the driving themes of the president's midterm strategy. the white house feels that this is a winning issue for them. i think that's why they're so concerned about the blowback from these recent incidents because it speaks to whether they're doing it too much,

whether they're dialing it up too far, and i think a lot of people would want them to tone it down. >> editor and chief of "politico" magazine. on a saturday night, thank you so much for joining me. coming up, we're going it take you back to pittsburgh. that's where hundreds are gathering for a vigil tonight to remember the 11 people killed in a synagogue some ten hours ago this morning this morning okay. [ buttons clicking ] [ camera shutter clicks ] so, now that you have a house, you can use homequote explorer. quiet. i'm blasting my quads. janice, look. i'm in a meeting. -janice, look. -[ chuckles ] -look, look. -i'm looking. it's easy. you just answer some simple questions online, and you get coverage options to choose from. you're ruining my workout. cycling is my passion.

you're ruining my workout. jimmy's gotten used to his whole yup, he's gone noseblind. odors. he thinks it smells fine, but his mom smells this... luckily for all your hard-to-wash fabrics... ...there's febreze fabric refresher. febreze doesn't just mask, it eliminates odors you've... ...gone noseblind to. and try febreze unstopables for fabric. with up to twice the fresh scent power, you'll want to try it... ...again and again and maybe just one more time. indulge in irresistible freshness. febreze unstopables. breathe happy. in bed? try fleet liquid glycerin instead. relief in minutes, not hours. every time, on your time. now $1.00 off with sunday's paper. guaranteed relief or your money back. now $1.00 off with sunday's paper. but some give their clients cookie cutter portfolios. fisher investments tailors portfolios to your goals and needs. some only call when they have something to sell.

fisher calls regularly so you stay informed. and while some advisors are happy to earn commissions whether you do well or not. fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management. first, it continues to pay paramedics while we're on break. second, it ensures the closest ambulance can respond if you call 9-1-1. vote yes on 11. it's my job to protect as a public safety,pg&e, keeping the powerlines clear while also protecting the environment. the natural world is a beautiful thing. the work that we do helps protect it. public education is definitely a big part of our job, to teach our customers about the best type of trees to plant around the powerlines. we want to keep the power on for our customers. we want to keep our communities safe. this is our community. this is where we live. we need to make sure that we have a beautiful place for our children to live.

together, we're building a better california. proposition 11 "proposition 11 is a vote to protect patient safety." it ensures the closest ambulance remains on-call during paid breaks "so that they can respond immediately when needed." vote yes on 11. welcome back, everyone, as we continue our coverage of the tree of life synagogue shooting in pittsburgh. we're joined now by matt bradley. there was a vigil underway. matt, you said it has been a very emotional time, there were upwards of 1,000 people there earlier, talk about what it's like on the scene. >> reporter: it's been about two hours since this whole thing got started. there's some stranglers here. the mood here, it's not that somb somber. people are together, they're feeling strong and a lot better

than they were two hours ago, this has been an emotional journey, the vigil has really brought that home. i had a guest earlier when i was speaking to cody murphy, she was one of the student organizers. this whole thing was organized by students. high school student who is live in the area, they're part of this tight knit community. they came together in the hours after this attack, they put it together. and they were surprised by the huge turnout that came out here. cody was telling me, one of the songs they sang here is a song that they sing at a popular jewish day camp that a lot of kids from this area go to. let me tell you about this community. of the 50,000 jews in the pittsburgh area, about a third of them live here in squirrel hill, really is the pillar of the entire jewish community in pittsburgh. as i mentioned earlier, it's not just jews who are welcome here. this is where fred rogers,

mister rogers lived and died in this neighborhood. down the street is where he used to go swimming every morning. it's a dynamic, diverse neighborhood. that's why they had the vigil outside a presbyterian church. this shows the kind of diversity, the pluralism this attacker was laying siege to this morning. >> did cody share with you how she got this together? did she use social media to do that? >> yeah, it was a lot like these students from marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland florida. these young people coming forward after these tragedies, trying to demand adults pay attention to them. they're using the tools that adults are just learning to adapt, like social media, things like this, they didn't need to use social media, they're so close knit here, everybody knows each other. they were all hanging out, even the night before, they called each other, they texted, they

used every tool available and they managed to get this huge group of people in the hours after this attack. >> something of a soothing event for those affected by the tragedy. as i welcome dan nny savalo to the studio with me. you have this man accused of killing 11 people, injuring six others, including four police officers. robert bowers using social media to spread hate earlier, and then have you kids, like young cody murphy, using social media to try to alleviate the stress and tension and get people gathering to mourn those victims. and it is an incredible thing, the element of social media and what the legal challenges will be for robert bowers, how much will that be a pivotal influence

into what kind of charges we're able to bring against him. >> social media has the power to divide and bring people together. the advent of social media has only been a boone to law enforcement. defense attorneys will tell you that they've -- many times walked into a courtroom and had to contend with even stronger case against their client. because their client is accused of committing a crime, and may have posted things on social media that make it obvious that this crime was committed. whether it be showing guns, showing drugs. any kind of paraphernalia, celebrating or saying nasty things on social media, that evidence intent and motive, when it comes to hate crimes, the challenge that prosecutors will tell you that they face,additionally proving something that isn't an element of crimes, and that's motive, motive can be evidence of intent, but motive is rarely an element of crimes, unless we're talking about hate crimes and

social media can supply that piece of the puzzle, showing what the motive was behind the crime, by showing those elements, those statements made on social media. >> among those statements today, the most chilling was the very end of his last texts he put out there, having said, i'm going in. certainly you'll have the evidence that's gathered there, the fact that he was caught on the scene, a number of things investigators will be looking at. that will be one of them going toward the crime scene he'll be charged with. many thanks for your expertise and information. it's been a long day. stay with msnbc for continuing shooting in pittsburgh. so a tree falls on your brand new car and totals it.

and as if that wasn't bad enough, now your insurance won't replace it outright because of depreciation. if your insurance won't replace your car, what good is it? you'd be better off just taking your money and throwing it right into the harbor. i'm gonna regret that. with new car replacement, if your brand new car gets totaled, liberty mutual will pay the entire value plus depreciation. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

big corporations are making and just got a huge tax break. but the middle class is struggling. prop c is a common-sense plan. the top 1% of businesses pay their fair share to tackle homelessness for all of us. companies with revenue greater than $50 million pay, not small businesses or homeowners. the prop c plan is supported by the democratic party, teachers, and mental-health professionals. vote "yes" on c. big corporations pay for it, not you.

good evening and welcome to politics nation, we're coming to you on a solemn evening. 11 confirmed kill ed plus six injured on today's hate attack on the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh. the deadliest ever on the jewish-american community. the suspect is in custody, 46-year-old robert bowers has expressed explicitly anti-semitic views, both on social media and when he was apprehended earlier this