Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democratic candidate for governor, recently stated his "concern" regarding the position of far-left congressional hopeful Melat Kiros. Weiser's apprehension stems from Kiros' apparent inability to affirm whether the firebombing of a pro-Israel rally constituted an antisemitic act.
Kiros' Stance on the Boulder Attack
During a 9News interview last month, Kiros was questioned about a fatal attack on a pro-Israel demonstration in Boulder that occurred the previous year. The incident resulted in one death and left a dozen others injured. Kiros appeared hesitant to characterize the event as antisemitic.
"I don't know what was in the heart of the perpetrator," Kiros remarked. "All I know is that he went and attacked innocent people because of what they might have believed, and I don't even know what the people that were at that protest believed, too. In fact, most of them were probably just there to, you know, ask that the people who were kidnapped during October 7 be returned home to their families. That's not a political statement in and of itself."
She further elaborated on her perspective:
"I think the fact that we're having a conversation about whether it was anti-Zionism or antisemitism is a political debate that, you know, I think everyone has the freedom to have, but to me it was a loss of innocent life. Regardless of what the perpetrator had in mind when he took those lives matters less to me than, you know, our responsibility to making sure that people understand that even in the face of these kinds of disagreements that violence is not the answer."
When pressed for further clarification, Kiros reiterated her lack of insight into the perpetrator's motivations.
Weiser Challenges Kiros' Interpretation
Weiser, who recently secured the Democratic primary nomination for governor, highlighted that the individual responsible for the attack, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, had already been found guilty on all charges, including the commission of a hate crime.
"We cannot look at that murder and say anything else happened than a hate crime," Weiser conveyed to 9News. "And so, if someone isn’t going to acknowledge that, I am concerned about that, because this was tried. Now we have a conviction. Our judicial system is set up to make a judgment, and the judgment here was it was a hate crime."
He explicitly referred to the incident as an "antisemitic attack" and expressed deep sorrow for Karen Diamond, an 82-year-old victim who lost her life during the demonstration.
Weiser drew a parallel to other social justice movements to underscore his point:
"This is a point you hear a lot in the context of Black Lives Matter. Now we’re talking Jewish Lives Matter, and for a lot of people this may not have been as clear a conversation, but let me tell you what it means. Black Lives Matter, period. Black Lives Matter. Elijah McClain’s life mattered, period. You don’t put a comma. Jewish lives matter. Karen Diamond’s life mattered. You don’t put a comma, an 'and' or a 'but' — period. That’s the message."