Chelsea Clinton was confronted in New York City by a college student while attending an interfaith vigil for the victims of the New Zealand massacre, who blamed Clinton’s rhetoric for the massacre.
A Twitter user by the name of “@Esor_Fasa” uploaded a video of a confrontation between NYU senior Leen Dweik and the visibly pregnant Clinton at a New York University vigil on Friday night in Greenwich Village, saying Dweik was “calling out Chelsea’s Islamophobia and hypocrisy.”
Woman blames @ChelseaClinton’s rhetoric for the New Zealand Mosque massacre.
The account this video originated on has since been deleted.
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 16, 2019
“This, right here, is a result of a massacre stoked by people like you and the words that you have put out into the world,” Dweik told Clinton in the video. “And I want you to know that and I want you to feel that deep down inside. Forty-nine people died because of the rhetoric you put out there.”
She was referring to Clinton’s comments last month about the rhetoric used by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., in her criticism of lawmakers’ foreign policy ties to the U.S.-Israeli relationship. The freshman representative has been in hot water from her colleagues on both sides of the aisle for her comments saying that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spends massive amounts of money buying off support for Israel.
“We should expect all elected officials, regardless of party, and all public figures to not traffic in anti-Semitism,” tweeted Clinton, whose husband, Marc Mezvinsky, is Jewish.
Dweik said she hoped Clinton would feel the guilt of the 49 Muslim worshipers killed in the massacre “deep inside.”
“I’m so sorry that you feel that way,” said an uncomfortable-looking Clinton, who is expecting her third child this summer. “Certainly, it was never my intention. I do believe words matter. I believe we have to show solidarity.”
Clinton co-founded an interfaith leadership institute at the university in 2012.
Dweik appears to be a left-wing student activist who helped disrupt a talk by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the university last year, and a student senator representing Middle East and North African students.
She later defended her actions on the Twitter account tagged by the account that originally uploaded the video.
“i was on the verge of tears all day today and actually cried on my into and during prayer but the charade of a vigil where more non-muslims than muslims spoke and chelsea clinton was invited made me so viscerally angry and i will not apologize for that,” Dweik tweeted.
i was on the verge of tears all day today and actually cried on my into and during prayer but the charade of a vigil where more non-muslims than muslims spoke and chelsea clinton was invited made me so viscerally angry and i will not apologize for that
— sippin on dat (@vivafalastin) March 16, 2019
She then added on the same Twitter thread: “the only voices i care about in this situation are those of brown students and muslim students who were in that room. white people yelling at me via a twitter rage is the least of my concerns.”
the only voices i care about in this situation are those of brown students and muslim students who were in that room. white people yelling at me via a twitter rage is the least of my concerns.
— sippin on dat (@vivafalastin) March 16, 2019
She tweeted that she did not mean to say Clinton was solely and directly responsible for the 49 deaths, but rather, that Clinton contributed to the hateful rhetoric that is used to radicalize individuals like the alleged New Zealand massacre shooter. High-profile individuals like Clinton have a responsibility to be sensible to marginalized communities, Dweik claimed, and Clinton’s attendance at the vigil after criticizing Omar was “irresponsible.”
She added: “i can’t believe this has to be said, but i didn’t tell chelsea clinton she was the one who put a gun to muslims’ heads. i said, & continue to say, that by jumping on the right-wing bandwagon & villifying ilhan omar, she fed into the EXACT discourse we were at the vigil to protest.”
i can’t believe this has to be said, but i didn’t tell chelsea clinton she was the one who put a gun to muslims’ heads. i said, & continue to say, that by jumping on the right-wing bandwagon & villifying ilhan omar, she fed into the EXACT discourse we were at the vigil to protest
— sippin on dat (@vivafalastin) March 16, 2019
Clinton received support over the encounter from a variety of sources, including Donald Trump Jr., President Trump’s son, who slammed the incident.
“We should all be condemning anti-Semitism & all forms of hate. Chelsea should be praised for speaking up. Anyone who doesn’t understand this is part of the problem,” he tweeted Saturday.
It’s sickening to see people blame @ChelseaClinton for the NZ attacks because she spoke out against anti-Semitism. We should all be condemning anti-Semitism & all forms of hate. Chelsea should be praised for speaking up. Anyone who doesn’t understand this is part of the problem.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 16, 2019
