“A person is dead. A family is shattered; multiple families are shattered. And a community is devastated,” State Sen. Julie Gonzales, a progressive Democrat, told The Colorado Sun, responding to aspiring Colorado House representative Melat Kiros’s refusal to call the June 27, 2025, deadly firebomb attack on the Boulder Jewish community antisemitic.
“To respond in a manner that says ‘well, I don’t know what was in that perpetrator’s heart,’ I think missed a moment and an opportunity to talk about what it takes to heal in the midst of just exceptional pain and violence,” Gonzales had said of the then-hopeful Democratic candidate’s widely-panned remark dismissing the anti-Jewish hate crime in which 82-year-old Boulder resident Karen Diamond was fatally wounded.
Kiros wasn’t the only relevant party to “miss the moment.” (Incidentally, perpetrator Mohamed Soliman, who reportedly shouted “Free Palestine” during the attack, wasn’t very mysterious about his intentions; he openly stated that he wished to target a “Zionist group.”)
The Associated Press boasts that it’s the “definitive source for independent journalism from every corner of the globe.” But AP’s July 1 coverage of Kiros’s victory in the state primaries is the latest instance in which the news agency proved itself the definitive sanitizer of global antisemitism.
Jessie Bedayn’s AP story, “Democratic socialist Melat Kiros defeats longtime US incumbent in Colorado,” was completely silent about Kiros’s refusal to label the deadly attack as antisemitic, although several of the candidate’s own progressive peers in Colorado had condemned her remarks.
“I was very disappointed in her answer to that question,” State Rep. Yara Zoakaie, who endorsed Kiros, told The Sun. “The answer is obvious that the attack on Jewish people in Boulder was an antisemitic attack and a horrific act of violence that all leaders should condemn.”
David Seligman, a progressive candidate for attorney general, agreed: “I think it was wrong of her.”
Since Kiros’s primary win, Colorado governor nominee Phil Weiser, also a Democrat, likewise slammed Kiros’s refusal to condemn the attack as antisemitic. “Black Lives Matter, period,” Weiser told The Hill. “Jewish lives matter… You don’t put a comma, an and, or a but. Period. That’s the message.”
Indeed, the House overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan resolution condemning the attack as antisemitic, with only virulently anti-Israel lawmakers Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Thomas Massie voting present. Thus, Kiros’s position on the deadly attack in her home state makes her an outlier even in her own party.
But that’s not the only troubling message about the candidate that the news service concealed.
On-screen antisemitism
A July 2 Denver Post editorial, which yielded the baseless “genocide” libel against Israel, nevertheless forthrightly said Kiros “has made ending Israel a cornerstone of her campaign.” It claimed that “Kiros’s anti-Israel stance will take center stage.”
“The Denverites she represents deserve to know that, while in Congress, that is the position Kiros will be advocating for – an end to the state of Israel,” the Denver paper maintained.
“Between now and the November election, Kiros has the opportunity to deepen and broaden her support in Denver by addressing the concern that she will use her vote in Congress to deny military aid to Israel without a plan for what happens when that country can no longer defend itself from people who are definitely antisemitic,” it continued.
As Jewish Insider reported, “Kiros lost her job at the law firm Sidley Austin in 2023 for publishing a column denouncing hundreds of top law firms that called on law schools to do more to address antisemitism on their campuses. The column argued that calling for the elimination of Israel is not antisemitic and defended Hamas and those who have expressed support for it.”
AP papered over her inglorious departure from law, casting her as a comeback kid success: “Kiros, a 29-year-old lawyer turned doctoral student, is the latest candidate to rise from the party’s Left flank and boot establishment-backed candidates.”
The closest that AP’s Bedayn got to reporting on the “cornerstone” of Kiros’ campaign – that is, the aspiration to dismantle the Jewish state – was a few words about her victory speech remarks on “ending the ‘genocide in Palestine.’”
The AP, which promises “independent journalism,” certainly doesn’t probe the implications of Kiros’s platform to end all aid to Israel, much less even mention that position.
Nor has AP noted that among Kiros’s backers, an array of extremist anti-Israeli entities, including Jewish Voices for Peace and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, includes none other than pro-terror social media personality Hasan Piker.
As CAMERA UK’s Adam Levick has documented, Piker said America deserved Sept. 11, praised the Houthis, and celebrated the “brave mujahideen” for wounding US Congressman Dan Crenshaw, who, during his third deployment in Afghanistan, lost an eye in an IED blast.
A day after the Oct. 7 atrocities, Piker said, “Do you think that this happened out of nowhere? Do you think this happened out of thin air? Are you f***ing stupid? Do you think the Israeli state was just, like, peacefully coexisting, and then these guys came in with f***ing gliders out of nowhere?”
“You cannot push people into a f***ing corner their whole lives and not expect them to fight back at a certain point,” the social media personality railed.
In 2024, Piker evaded Piers Morgan’s persistent questioning as to whether he condemned or condoned the Oct. 7 massacre: “I think that violent means of maintaining an apartheid is inevitably going to yield violent retaliation.”
After Sydney, New York, and Montreal, the Associated Press moves into Colorado as its latest venue for cementing its status as antisemitism’s definitive sanitizer.
The writer is director of media research and analysis for CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis) and director of the organization’s Israel office.
