WASHINGTON — Democratic socialist congressional hopeful Melat Kiros repeatedly downplayed concerns about a firebombing at a Jewish community rally in Boulder last year being antisemitic and has contended that the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks were “inevitable.”
One person was injured and a dozen killed in the June 1, 2025, firebombing attack at a weekly Jewish gathering aimed at bringing attention to the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas.
Suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman tossed Molotov cocktails at the crowd while using a flamethrower and shouting “End Zionist” and “Free Palestine,” according to the FBI, which claimed he later “stated that he wanted to kill all Zionist people.” He’s now serving a life sentence.
Kiros, who notched an upset victory over 15-term incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) Tuesday evening, struggled to see how that was antisemitic.
“I don’t know what was in the heart of the perpetrator,” Kiros told 9News last month. “All I know is that he went and attacked innocent people because of what they might have believed.”
“I don’t even know what the people who were at that protest believed, too. In fact, most of them were just there to ask that the people who were kidnapped during Oct. 7 be returned home to their families.”
She later dug in on that position, telling NOTUS that it wasn’t “entirely obvious that it was just motivated by antisemitism.”
“It’s absolutely possible that that was a part of it as well, but I do think it’s important that we know exactly what the motivation was,” she contended to the outlet.
Kiros acknowledged that the firebombing was a “hate crime” and stressed to the Colorado Sun that “protecting Jewish people in Denver, and across this country, isn’t negotiable.”
Throughout her campaign, Kiros made a point of aggressively crusading against Israel.
She crowed about how she was fired from the Sidley Austin law firm three years ago after she tore into law firms pushing to crack down on antisemitism roiling college campuses at the time.
“By chilling future lawyers’ employment prospects for criticism of the Israeli government’s actions and its legitimacy, you are complicit in Israel’s weaponization of anti-Semitism against legitimate concerns for the right of self-determination and the livelihood of the Palestinian people,” she wrote in an open letter at the time.
During her victory speech, Kiros bragged, “I didn’t flinch because I stood by every word and I always will.”
In May, Kiros did an interview with the far-left, anti-Israel streamer Hasan Piker, who has claimed that if Hamas engaged in rape against Israelis, it “doesn’t change the dynamic for me.” In 2019, the controversial streamer also declared that “America deserved 9/11.”
Kiros told Piker that the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack was an “inevitable consequence of apartheid,” but later clarified she wasn’t trying to suggest it was justified.
She also suggested to 9News journalist Kyle Clark that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the US were an “inevitable consequence” of America’s actions.
“Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East, which led people to believe that another act of violence was the only response. And again, just like I said before, our responsibility is to get rid of those conditions that lead to violence in the first place,” she said.
The Post contacted Kiros’ campaign for comment.
