Obama’s former adviser arrested for hate crime in NY
Obama’s former U.S. State Department official, Stuart Seldowitz, was arrested in New York on Wednesday for hate crime.
Seldowitz was captured on video calling an Egyptian halal street vendor a terrorist and saying that the death of 4,000 Palestinian children “wasn’t enough.”
The charges against him are aggravated harassment, hate crime stalking, stalking causing fear, and stalking at a place of employment, police said in a statement.
“A 24-year-old male victim stated to police that an individual approached him at his work place multiple times and made anti-Islamic statements multiple times on different dates causing the victim to feel afraid and annoyed,” police added.
The attacks that broke out on October seventh have prompted a surge in both Islamophobia and antisemitism across the globe.
Social media posts showed Seldowitz in a video saying, “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough.”
"If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, it wasn't enough…"
In a separate incident, US State Department veteran Stuart Seldowitz continues his racist harassment of a street vendor in New York.pic.twitter.com/GP49aoxFzg
— Lowkey (@Lowkey0nline) November 21, 2023
In the posts, the vendor told Seldowitz more than once to “go, go, go, go” and “I won’t hear it.” Seldowitz then responds, “But you’re a terrorist. You support terrorism.”
When asked about the incident, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “The United States unequivocally opposes racist or discriminatory language of any form.”
