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Dem seeking NY swing seat defends embracing extremist who said Hamas is ‘a thousands times better’ than Israel
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A progressive Democrat vying for a hotly contested New York swing seat in November’s midterm elections is defending her association with controversial far-left streamer Hasan Piker.
Effie Phillips-Staley is facing backlash from her own party as she seeks the nomination to take on Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., after she went on Piker’s livestream in late March and called Israel an «apartheid state» and accused the Jewish nation of genocide in Gaza.
Democratic county chairs within the suburban New York district Phillips-Staley is running to represent put out a joint statement denouncing Phillips-Staley for participating in the «normalization of antisemitic, racist and misogynist rhetoric.»
Despite the intraparty criticism, the candidate doubled down. She told Fox News Digital that Piker, 34, provides a vehicle for Democrats to reach young voters.
Online streamer Hasan Piker invited Democratic House candidate Effie Phillips-Staley on his livestream, which has nearly 3 million followers. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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«While I don’t align with every word Hasan Piker has ever said, we recognize the massive value of a platform that engages millions of young people in the Democratic process,» Phillips-Staley said.
«As Democrats, our job is to build bridges, not burn them,» she added in a statement to Fox News Digital. «We should be inviting young people into the process by building a coalition rooted in collective humanity. I will always fight for universal human rights, and Palestinian self determination while standing firmly against anti-Semitism.»
Piker once said «America deserved 9/11.» He has since characterized that remark as «inappropriate.»
The streamer has been sharply criticized for calling some Orthodox Jews «inbred» and once described a listener who voiced disapproval of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel as a «bloodthirsty violent pig dog.» He has denied charges of antisemitism despite continuing to argue that Hamas is «a thousand times better» than Israel.
Phillips-Staley, who is endorsed by the left-wing Working Families Party and former progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., has largely defended Piker’s controversial comments. She has argued that critics have taken some of his remarks out of context and that he is «on the right side of history» on issues related to Israel and the Palestinian people, during an appearance on the Left Hook podcast.
A campaign spokesman for Rep. Lawler slammed Phillips-Staley’s defense of Piker.
«Embracing an antisemite who praised the 9/11 attacks and sympathizes with terrorists is no longer disqualifying in the modern Democratic Party, and Effie Phillips-Staley is proving that in real time,» Ciro Riccardi told Fox News Digital. «Even worse, her Democratic opponents refusing to call Effie out for such offensive behavior shows you just how radical you need to be to win a Democratic primary today.»
«Middle of the road voters should take notice and ask themselves whether this who they really want in control of the House,» he added, referring to House Democrats.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole was also critical of Phillips-Staley’s primary opponents — former Biden administration national security official Cait Conley and Rockland County legislator Beth Davidson — for not condemning Phillips-Staley’s appearance on Piker’s livestream.
Conley and Davidson have expressed support for Israel, and the former is backed by the pro-Israel group, Democratic Majority for Israel PAC.
Spokespersons for Davidson and Conley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Democratic House candidate Effie Phillips-Staley has defended her appearance on controversial personality Hasan Piker’s livestream. (Udo Salters/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images : Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)
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Phillips-Staley is among a growing number of progressive Democrats embracing Piker ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have been interviewed by Piker on his show.
Piker recently headlined a campaign event earlier in April for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ preferred Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
But not all Democrats think the party’s embracing of Piker is a good idea.
A swath of Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., have distanced themselves from the far-left influencer’s platform, citing concern about his past statements.
Phillips-Staley maintains that her hardening anti-Israel stance is the pathway to victory in the battleground district this November.
«Advancing someone who is so close on this issue to Mike Lawler would be a genuine mistake when this is something that the overwhelming majorities of the Democratic party’s base are demanding a separation from,» Phillips-Staley told Piker, referring to Israel.
Just 13% of Democrats hold a positive view of Israel compared to 57% who view the country negatively, according to a March NBC News survey. Among independents, just over 20% see Israel in a positive light.
It’s unclear if Phillips-Staley’s approach will work in the southern Hudson Valley seat, which is one of the most heavily Jewish districts in the country.
«I’ve taken a very … what I hope that people perceive to be an authentic and progressive human rights-focused platform and we’re going to test it here too,» Phillips-Staley told the Breaking Points podcast.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., leaves a House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on July 15, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
Lawler successfully fended off a challenge from Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., in 2024. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates his reelection contest as a «toss-up.»
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Divisions over Israel are not the only area where Lawler and Phillips-Staley have clashed.
Lawler’s campaign filed a lawsuit on Tuesday alleging the Phillips-Staley campaign forged voter signatures on petitions to be eligible for the Empire State’s June primary. The campaign submitted dozens of sworn affidavits from voters in the district who alleged they never put their names on petitions submitted by the Phillips-Staley campaign.
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New York City’s socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani did it again.
One year after sending political shock waves across the country with his New York City Democratic primary victory on his way to winning election as mayor of the nation’s most populous city, Mamdani tested the limits of his political powers.
And he easily passed the test, upending the Democratic Party establishment as a trio of Mamdani-endorsed far-left congressional candidates won their primaries over more moderate incumbents and rivals.
Mamdani was the biggest winner on Tuesday, but President Donald Trump also covered his bases, as New York, Maryland, Utah and South Carolina held primaries and runoff elections.
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Congressional candidates Claire Valdez, Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani raise their hands during a Get Out the Vote rally at King’s Theater in New York City on June 18, 2026. Sen. Bernie Sanders joined Mamdani ahead of the primary and early voting to campaign for the candidates challenging incumbents in Democratic primary contests. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Democrats lurching left
The mayor’s most shocking victory came in New York’s 13th Congressional District, where Mamdani-backed candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old community organizer and democratic socialist, narrowly topped incumbent Democrat Adriano Espaillat, the 71-year-old Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair and the first Dominican American elected to the U.S. House.
Espaillat, who has been in Congress for a decade, was supported by a slew of party leaders, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
MAMDANI-BACKED SOCIALIST WITH HISTORY OF ANTI-AMERICAN RHETORIC WINS VICIOUS DEM PRIMARY RACE
In the race to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Nydia Velazquez, Mamdani-endorsed state Assembly Member Claire Valdez, who is also aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, downed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso by double digits. Reynoso, who was supported by Velazquez, was downed by more than 20 points.
«Tonight, we haven’t just won an election. We have declared that this movement is durable — that it is growing, and that it will not stop until working people are no longer asked to just build the table, no longer just offered a seat at the table, but will run the table,» Valdez said in declaring victory.
And a third Mamdani-backed congressional candidate, progressive Brad Lander, crushed incumbent Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman. Lander, the former New York City comptroller, ran against Mamdani last year in the crowded Democratic primary field but became one of his biggest backers in the general election.
Chevalier, Valdez, and Lander showcased the mayor’s platform of focusing on affordability in a city with one of the nation’s highest costs of living. And all three were very critical of Israel.
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Lander, who is Jewish, said in his victory speech, «You can criticize Israel and not be antisemitic. You can be an anti-Zionist and not be antisemitic
It was a risky bet for Mamdani, just six months into his tenure as New York City mayor, to take on the establishment, but he comes out of the primary as an emboldened kingmaker in the party.
Mamdani, who campaigned relentlessly for all three congressional candidates, had emphasized that the Democratic Party «must change.»
And on Tuesday night, at the Valdez primary celebration, the mayor said, «Let’s hear it for a politics…that will never forget working people. For a politics that is ready to write a new chapter in our party’s history, and for a politics that realizes the old politics that got us to this crisis, is not the politics that’s going to get us out of this crisis.»
Progressive Rep. Ro Khanna of California, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, said that the results in New York City «shows we have a new party.»
But the results also give Republicans, who have long cast Mamdani as a radical, more ammunition to use him as a cudgel as they work to hold their razor-thin House majority in this year’s midterm elections.
REPUBLICANS RELENTLESSLY USE MAMDANI AS SOCIALIST CUDGEL TO BASH VULNERABLE DEMOCRATS
«Tonight wasn’t just a bad night for so-called ‘Leader’ Hakeem Jeffries. It was the night the Democrat establishment officially surrendered to Zohran Mamdani and the socialist wing of their party. Every House Democrat, in safe and competitive districts alike, will now answer to the radicals calling the shots. And Americans should be terrified by where the Democrat Party is headed,» National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella argued in a statement.
Trump wins again
The power of the Trump endorsement in GOP primaries was tested again, this time in New York.
And the president prevailed.
Trump-backed first-time candidate Anthony Constantino, a businessman and former boxer, defeated Robert Smullen, a retired Marine Corps colonel and New York assemblyman who had the backing of the state party, in the upstate New York race to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik.
Meanwhile, in South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial runoff, Trump couldn’t lose.
That’s because he endorsed both candidates in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Henry McMaster.
State Attorney General Alan Wilson defeated Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in a landslide.
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Trump endorsed Evette late last month, a week and a half before the gubernatorial primary.
Evette finished on top of a crowded field of contenders in the primary election, with Wilson second. The field also included Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman, and multimillionaire businessman Rom Reddy. Since no candidate won a majority of the vote, as the top two finishers, Evette and Wilson advanced to Tuesday’s runoff.
Mace and Norman endorsed Wilson after failing to advance to the runoff. And Wilson was also backed a week ago by Sen. Ted Cruz, the conservative firebrand from Texas.
Trump, meanwhile, made an 11th-hour endorsement on Friday, backing Wilson in addition to his earlier endorsement of Evette, in what appeared to be a move by the president to hedge his bet.
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Wilson, who topped Evette by a more than two-to-one margin as the votes continued to be counted, gave a shout-out to the president in his victory speech.
«I believe he recognized what we’ve been doing,» Wilson said of Trump. «I think he saw the fight in our campaign and the energy in our campaign. I think he likes a fight. I think that’s what won him over.»
democrats elections, midterm elections, donald trump, governors, zohran mamdani, republicans elections
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Rusia lanzó un nuevo ataque masivo con drones y misiles sobre el este de Ucrania: al menos un muerto
Durante la noche del martes y la mañana del miércoles, un nuevo ataque de Rusia contra Ucrania dejó un muerto al este del país, en Kharkiv. Un bombardeo nocturno con drones sobre la ciudad de Balakliya, en la región ucraniana, causó la muerte de una mujer de 56 años, de acuerdo con Oleg Synegubov, jefe de la administración militar regional. Durante el mismo ataque, una mujer de 21 años sufrió una “reacción de estrés agudo”, y se reportaron incendios y daños en viviendas.
Por otra parte, en Sebastopol, ciudad bajo control ruso en Crimea, un ataque atribuido a fuerzas ucranianas dejó a la ciudad sin suministro eléctrico, según informó el gobernador Mikhail Razvozhayev. Razvozhayev exhortó a la población a reservar el uso de teléfonos para comunicaciones de emergencia, con el fin de evitar la sobrecarga de la red eléctrica. “El enemigo vuelve a atacar a traición, intentando privarnos de unas condiciones de vida normales y sembrar el pánico”, escribió el gobernador en Telegram.
Crimea fue anexada por Rusia en 2014 y constituye un punto logístico clave en el conflicto. Ucrania ataca regularmente el territorio con misiles y drones. Mientras tanto, Rusia mantiene una campaña diaria de bombardeos sobre Ucrania con drones y misiles desde el inicio de la invasión, que ya cumple cinco años. Ucrania ha incrementado sus propios ataques, dirigiéndose con frecuencia a depósitos de petróleo y refinerías en territorio ruso, que, según Kiev, financian el esfuerzo de guerra ruso.
En las últimas semanas, Moscú intensificó sus ataques contra Kharkiv, la segunda ciudad más grande de Ucrania: bombas rusas impactaron el sábado pasado un edificio de apartamentos y provocó la muerte de al menos una persona y dejó otras nueve heridas, entre ellos un niño de 6 años.
El alcalde Ihor Terekhov comunicó en Telegram que, horas después del ataque, se recuperó un cuerpo de entre los escombros. Las bombas alcanzaron un edificio de baja altura en el distrito de Kholodnohirskiy durante la madrugada.
El jefe de la administración regional, Syniehubov, precisó que al menos nueve personas resultaron heridas y cinco de ellas permanecieron hospitalizadas. En otro ataque registrado el viernes por la noche, un dron ruso impactó un vehículo civil en otra zona de Kharkiv, causando la muerte de un hombre y heridas a la conductora, según añadió Syniehubov.
Las hostilidades rusas circulan por la misma vía que las declaraciones del presidente ruso Vladimir Putin, quien insiste en continuar con la invasión ya que no están dadas, bajo su mirada, las condiciones optimas para negociar la paz en Ucrania.
Por este motivo, el líder del Kremlin descartó el martes cualquier acercamiento con Ucrania para negociar el fin de la guerra, argumentando que la reciente solicitud de diálogo directo realizada por el mandatario ucraniano Volodimir Zelensky no generó condiciones favorables para entablar negociaciones ni para un encuentro personal entre ambos líderes.
Zelensky había presentado la propuesta en una carta abierta dirigida al Kremlin y publicada el 5 de junio, en la que exigía un alto el fuego inmediato y un encuentro cara a cara con Putin. En ese mensaje, también afirmó que “los rusos están cansados tanto de él como de la guerra”.
Durante el Foro Económico de San Petersburgo, Putin calificó la carta como un “papelito” y la describió como “grosera en partes”. A su vez, sostuvo que ese tipo de comunicados no allanan el camino hacia la paz y los vinculó a un ataque con drones ucraniano contra una residencia estudiantil en Starobilsk ocurrido tres días después de la carta.
“No, ese tipo de comunicados no crean las condiciones necesarias”, afirmó Putin en respuesta a un militar que le consultó sobre la posibilidad de negociaciones. “¿A qué se reducen, al fin y al cabo? A crear, por el contrario, cierto potencial de conflicto”, agregó, y cuestionó las intenciones de Kiev al señalar que, mientras se habla de encuentros personales, “tres días después” ocurre un ataque como el de Starobilsk.
(Con información de AFP)
War,Europe,Military Conflicts
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