Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, the Democratic Party's gubernatorial nominee, broke publicly Wednesday with far-left congressional candidate Melat Kiros after Kiros declined in a prior television interview to label a convicted hate-crime attack on a pro-Israel rally in Boulder as antisemitic. The rebuke marks one of the sharpest internal fault lines to emerge inside Colorado's Democratic Party since Weiser defeated U.S. Senator Michael Bennet in the primary bid for governor.
What Happened at the Boulder Rally
Last year, a gunman attacked a pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado, killing 82-year-old Karen Diamond and wounding more than a dozen other attendees. Mohamed Sabry Soliman was subsequently tried and convicted on all charges, including committing a hate crime. A jury's guilty verdict on the hate-crime count makes the legal classification of the attack unambiguous under Colorado law.
Kiros Hedges on Antisemitism Question
In a 9News interview conducted last month, Kiros — a self-described socialist running for Congress — was asked whether the Boulder attack qualified as antisemitic. She declined to say so directly, telling the interviewer she did not know what the perpetrator had in his heart. She described the violence as an attack on "innocent people" and framed the question of whether it constituted antisemitism versus anti-Zionism as an ongoing political debate, stopping short of applying either label. When pressed a second time, she again cited uncertainty about Soliman's intentions.
That framing matters in a specific way: a criminal conviction for a hate crime is not a speculation about intent — it is a legal finding made by a jury. Characterizing that finding as an open debate misrepresents what the court record actually shows.
Weiser's Response and Its Political Significance
Weiser told 9News he was "concerned" by Kiros's answer and drew a direct line to the conviction. He called the attack an "antisemitic attack" and invoked the Black Lives Matter framework to explain why he rejected any hedging: just as "Black lives matter, period" leaves no room for qualification, he said, "Jewish lives matter. Karen Diamond's life mattered. You don't put a comma, an 'and' or a 'but' — period."
For a state-level Democratic nominee, publicly distancing himself from a left-wing primary challenger is a calculated signal — one aimed at moderate general-election voters in a competitive environment where the party's left flank has drawn national scrutiny. Weiser confirmed he has not yet met with Kiros to discuss her remarks. Fox News Digital said it reached out to Kiros's campaign for comment but did not receive a response before publication.