Weiser presses – Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser says he’s concerned Democratic Socialist congressional candidate Melat Kiros won’t call a June 1 Boulder firebombing of Jewish activists anti-Semitism, even after a conviction found it was a hate crime. In a Wednesday inte
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser didn’t wait long to make the issue personal.
On Wednesday night. speaking to local 9News anchor Kyle Clark about Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros. Weiser said he’s worried Kiros will not refer to the June 1 Boulder firebombing of a Jewish group as anti-Semitism. The attorney general’s concern. he said. is grounded in what he calls a hate-crime finding—after a conviction—and in what he knows about the victims.
The spotlight on Kiros comes as she surges through Democratic primaries. Kiros. a Democratic Socialist. knocked out a 15-term incumbent in her Democratic Party congressional primary and has already grabbed headlines for remarks during a recent interview with Clark. In that conversation. Clark pressed her on past controversial statements. including calling the October 7 terror attacks in Israel “the inevitable consequence of apartheid.”.
Kiros told Clark that she did not believe Israel deserved the brutal Hamas attack. But the interview also surfaced other views that drew anger, including her framing of the 9/11 terror attacks as the “inevitable” result of the U.S. destabilizing the Middle East.
That history is now colliding with a different set of facts—one that Clark returned to directly after Weiser agreed to discuss Kiros on Wednesday night.
When Clark asked Weiser about Kiros’ refusal to condemn the Boulder attack as anti-Semitism. he put the core question on the table: whether Weiser believes her views about Israel amount to anti-Semitism. Weiser responded that the attack in Boulder was an anti-Semitic act and that he personally believes the case must be called what it was.
“Black lives matter. Period. Jewish lives matter… you don’t put a comma an and or a but. Period. That’s the message,” Weiser said, using the kind of blunt emphasis that has long defined his public commentary.
From there, he moved to the June 1 attack. Weiser said, “Well, I want to pick up one point because it’s personal to me,” and then described what he says he learned from knowing the victims.
“To the extent that you’re aware of what she has said about Israel, do you see anti-Semitism there?” Clark asked.
Weiser answered by saying what happened in Boulder was an anti-Semitic attack and that he knew Karen Diamond—describing her as a supporter and a friend. He also said he knew Lou Diamond, who he noted is now a widower.
“We cannot look at that murder and say anything else happened than a hate crime,” Weiser said.
He added that the judicial system had already reached a conclusion. “And so, if someone isn’t going to acknowledge that, I am concerned about that,” he said. “This was tried — this was, now we have a conviction.”
Weiser said the judgment was that the June 1 Boulder killing was a hate crime. He tied the framing back to debates that have often played out in public life through the language of Black Lives Matter, but he insisted that the same standard should apply to Jewish victims as well.
“This is a point you hear a lot in the context of Black Lives Matter. Now we’re talking Jewish Lives Matter,” Weiser said, describing it as a conversation some people may not have found “as clear.”
He then used a repeated cadence—“period”—to drive home the distinction he wants to make about how Jewish lives are spoken about in public.
“I haven’t sat down with her, but when we have a conversation, and if this June 1st attack comes up, that’s my view,” Weiser said at the end of his remarks.
The conflict now boils down to a simple, volatile question: whether Kiros will name the Boulder firebombing of Jewish activists as anti-Semitism, even as Weiser insists that the conviction and the facts of the case leave no room for ambiguity.
Phil Weiser Melat Kiros Boulder firebombing anti-Semitism hate crime conviction Colorado politics Democratic primary Black Lives Matter Jewish Lives Matter
So she refused to call it anti-Semitism? Wild.
I only saw the headline but it sounds like the AG is trying to label her something. Also the Israel/Palestine stuff is always messy, like nobody can just say one thing clearly.
Wait, I thought the whole thing was about firebombing and she denied it was hate? But the article also talking about 9/11 and Hamas and like… how is that even the same story? Feels like they’re building a case from old comments instead of the actual conviction.
Democratic Socialist sounds like she’s gonna be pro-terror or something, sorry but that’s the vibe. If she can’t even call a hate crime hate, what’s she gonna do in Congress? And then they bring up 9News like Kyle Clark isn’t gonna push his own agenda… sounds like politicians fighting and calling each other anti-whatever.