Viral Videos Show Former Obama Official Making Racist Comments

A former Obama administration official was recorded harassing a New York City food cart vendor with racist comments in a series of videos that have gone viral.

The videos show Stuart Seldowitz, who served as acting director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate from 2009 to 2011, using disturbing language to mock the unnamed Upper East Side halal vendor’s English-speaking skills, citizenship status and religion.

NYPD’s hate crime task force is now investigating former Obama adviser Stuart Seldowitz, after videos showed him saying killing 4K Palestinian children “wasn’t enough” and calling a food truck vendor a “terrorist.” I’ll have an updated story later today https://t.co/bGky0wDM3n

— 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐚 𝐤𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐧𝐚𝐧 (@ManishaKrishnan) November 22, 2023

From Fox News:

“Did you rape your daughter like Muhammad did?” Seldowitz asks the vendor in the first video, referring to the Prophet Muhammad, the most revered figure in Islam. The video shows the vendor repeatedly saying he doesn’t speak English and asking Seldowitz to leave.

This man wearing a green jacket was berating and harassing a halal cart vendor off 83rd and 2nd Ave in NYC. Does anyone know who this man is? Planning to report to the authorities. pic.twitter.com/GwklyXpsPH

— Layla 🪬 (@itslaylas) November 21, 2023

Seldowitz then appears to take a photo of the vendor and threatens to send it to his “friends in Immigration” and the Mukhabarat, Egypt’s intelligence agency, before suggesting the organization would torture the vendor’s family by removing their fingernails. It’s unclear if the vendor is Egyptian.

He then calls the vendor “ignorant” for presumably not being able to speak English.

ADVERTISEMENT

The second video shows Seldowitz harassing the vendor on a separate occasion by asking if he has a permit to sell food on the street and if he has a visa.

this man is continuing to berate and harass the halal cart vendor. He ends the video with “if we killed 4,000 palestinian kids? It wasn’t enough”. pic.twitter.com/yhu4HSvIEZ

— Layla 🪬 (@itslaylas) November 21, 2023

The vendor tells Seldowitz that if he doesn’t intend to buy anything, then he needs to leave, but Seldowitz continues to hound him, appearing to accuse him of being a Hamas supporter.

“You support killing young children,” Seldowitz said, to which the vendor replied, “You kill children, not me. Go.”

“I didn’t kill children,” Seldowitz responded, before saying, “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, it wasn’t enough.”

Context: this racist bigot has been harassing the vendors for 2 weeks. Another video of him saying the same thing.
vendors called the police, @NYPD19Pct told the vendors "there's nothing we can do, it's a free country!"
since when islamophobia became free speech? @JulieMenin https://t.co/ARTbP283II pic.twitter.com/vNSp1QylMk

— Mohamed Attia (@Mo__Attia) November 21, 2023

Another video posted by a different X user shows Seldowitz again asking if the vendor is in the country legally, before a bystander jumps in to defend the vendor.

After the videos surfaced, Seldowitz told the Daily Beast that they only show one side of the whole story. He admitted to starting up the initial conversation with the vendor but claimed the latter instigated the escalation by expressing support for Hamas.

“I regret the whole thing happened, and I’m sorry,” he later told City & State. “But you know, in the heat of the moment, I said things that probably I shouldn’t have said.”

“If I had to do it all over again, I would not have raised the religious aspect,” he said. “I don’t think I’m an Islamophobic guy. … I’ve spoken up for equal treatment of Muslims on numerous occasions with numerous different people.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Stuart Seldowitz totally regrets saying things "in the heat of the moment" on at least 5 separate occasions where no one asked for his hateful opinion. When anyone asks us BIPOC to "be civil" just remember it's ppl like Stuart who are considered "civil." Fuck this guy. https://t.co/hMlSShjHJI pic.twitter.com/5afGOac4wv

— Axel Folio, PhD, TikTok "Dummy" (@ISASaxonists) November 22, 2023

The New York City-based lobbying group Gotham Government Relations, where Seldowitz was a consultant, ended its relationship with him on Tuesday.