Pressed on her remarks about terror attacks, yet another foreign-born socialist running for Congress maintained the “inevitable fault” rested with the U.S. and Israel.
(Video Credit: Next 9NEWS)
Leading up to the 2024 presidential elections, protests against Democratic candidates hesitant to align with keffiyeh-wearing Hamas sympathizers found some changing their tune where it concerned support for Israel. As the slippery slope descended to the next logical conclusion, Colorado Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros was lined up as the next radical with the potential to unseat an incumbent, while not backing off accusations of apartheid and occupation while putting the blame of Sept. 11 and Oct. 7 on the victims.
Ahead of the June 30 primary against incumbent Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette (D), Ethiopia-born Ph.D. student Kiros sat down for an interview with Next 9News’ Kyle Clark, where he raised her remarks from an appearance on Hasan Piker’s podcast.
She had said in May that Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel was “an inevitable consequence of apartheid, of occupation, decades of occupation.”
When asked about it, she told Clark, “It’s about understanding the conditions in which violence and war happens, right? Israel is a country that has been accused of apartheid and occupation for decades now and has been able to resist any kind of change despite all of the frustration on the world stage that people have had for the conditions that Palestinians have been living in.”
The anchor then asked her if she believed Sept. 11 was similarly inevitable, and after first dodging the question, she responded, “Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East that forced people to believe that another act of violence was the only response. And again, just like I said before, our responsibility is to getting rid of those conditions that lead to violence in the first place.”
Also discussed during the interview was Kiros’ termination in 2023 after the attack on Israel having penned an open letter against law firms like her then-employer, Sidley Austin, for speaking up against antisemitism on college campuses, alleging they delegitimized “one-state solutions called for by Palestinians and Israelis alike — one state, under the historic Palestine, where all citizens are equal under the rule of law, regardless of religion or ethnicity.”
The Colorado primary comes in the wake of New York’s elections where a slate of anti-American candidates received the nod from Gotham Democratic voters, leaving advisers, commentators and strategists speaking out against their own party’s direction. This included the primary victory of activist Aber Kawas for her New York state Senate campaign having gone on record in 2017 saying, “the system of capitalism and racism, and white supremacy, etc., have all — and Islamophobia — have all been used, you know, to colonize lands, right, to take resources from other people, and so this is, like, a long trajectory. And we’re just seeing the manifestations of that continuation, right, with 9/11.”
Kawas further said, “The idea we have to apologize for a terror attack that a couple of people did, and then there is no apology or reparations for genocides and for slavery … is something that I kinda find reprehensible.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
- Colorado Dem Candidate’s comments on 9/11 ignite political firestorm - June 30, 2026
- Barstool founder floats bid to take on Mamdani - June 30, 2026
- Iran exits World Cup and AP reaches for the tissues - June 30, 2026
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.