Gay progressive Democratic State Senator Scott Wiener is behind some of the most radical LGBTQ legislation in California – including helping create non-binary state IDs and establishing the state as a sanctuary for minors seeking ‘transgender’ medical procedures – but even that wasn’t enough to spare him the wrath of the anti-Israel wing of his party.
The Jewish lawmaker, who is running for the U.S. House seat vacated by retiring Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi in the San Francisco area, was forced out of an event connected to the Bay Area’s “Trans March” late last week.
The Backstory
Wiener drew backlash earlier this year after initially declining to call Israel’s military action in Gaza a genocide. In a January lightning-round debate question against two other candidates for Pelosi’s seat, Wiener was asked to respond “yes” or “no” to whether he thinks Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.
While his two challengers said yes, Wiener did not answer the question, which prompted jeers from audience and a swift rebuke on social media. He reversed course days later with a groveling video posted on X.
“For those of you who saw the debate clip from last week, I want to clarify that I do believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza,” he said, in part. “For many Jews, associating the word genocide with the Jewish state of Israel is deeply painful and frankly traumatic. But despite that pain and that trauma, we all have eyes, and we see the absolute devastation and catastrophic death toll in Gaza inflicted by the Israeli government. And we all have ears, and we hear the genocidal statements by certain senior members of the Israeli government.”
The Confrontation
The reversal apparently earned him little forgiveness, however, based on the confrontation that unfolded while Wiener was attempting to attend a trans-led “Pride Shabbat” service on Friday. Watch:
“I think your policy on the genocide in Gaza, it’s terrible… You do not belong here, Scott, anymore. It sucks, because you’ve been wonderful, you’ve been wonderful for trans people. And you’ve been terrible, and you’ve been terrible, you’ve been terrible, you’ve been terrible on Gaza,” a person believed to be named Dimitry Yakoushkin shouted at Wiener as a crowd followed. “You do not belong here anymore, Scott, and it breaks my fucking heart, it breaks my heart, it breaks my heart that someone who wrote good legislation for queers is so terrible on Gaza.”
The incident marked the second time that week Wiener had been accosted by someone over Israel and Gaza. He was also shouted down at a bar by a “Free Palestine” protester, who was reportedly kicked out of the establishment over the antics.
In a statement, Wiener’s office said the state senator was “harassed, threatened, and physically intimidated… in two separate incidents… sparked by people who had previously targeted Senator Wiener with aggressive behavior in the past.”
For his part, Wiener admitted he feared for his safety in the park. ”As I walked through Dolores Park to participate in a trans-led Pride Shabbat service in connection with the trans march, a group of people began screaming at me, ran up to me, surrounded me, and began harassing me, both verbally and physically, including physical contact,” the statement read, in part. “They were so physically and verbally aggressive that it was impossible for me to safely remain in the park. As a result, I left the park and, for the very first time, did not participate in the trans march.”
‘Harassed by the Sword’
The harassment of Wiener followed three far-left, anti-Israel candidates endorsed by New York City’s Democratic Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani cruising to victory in Democratic primaries for U.S. House seats in New York.
Megyn’s guest on Monday’s edition of The Megyn Kelly Show, Stu Burguiere, believes it represents a larger shift on the left. “The Hamas wing of the party, if you will, that is growing and growing and growing in its intensity, you know, going to an event on [October 8, 2023], the day after the massacre, and accusing them of genocide is completely insane, but it is a nice way to get a Zoran Mamdani endorsement,” he noted.
Perceived lack of adequate support on that issue, as it turns out, is enough to outweigh any other woke bonafides, as Wiener has now learned. “This guy has been all in on every woke agenda item the left has served up over the past few years, except one – sort of,” Megyn explained. “The left, as we know, has turned hard on Israel, and they’ve turned so hard on Israel that some faction of the left actually is antisemitic.”
“I object to the conflation of those two things – you can be very anti-Israel, and its government and [Benjamin Netanyahu], and what they’ve been doing to get us into wars, etc. and still have nothing but love in your heart for American Jews,” she continued. “I see them as so distinct, but there is a faction that doesn’t. It’s not entirely on the left, to be fair, but there is a faction that conflates the two and can’t stand either. And Scott Wiener ran smack dab into that faction over the weekend.”
While Burguiere acknowledged what happened to Wiener “should not happen to people in the United States of America,” he said it is “hard to have sympathy” for someone who has never extended that same grace to those he disagrees with.
Megyn agreed. “It really is, especially because he has never seen a child he doesn’t want to help trans. I mean, he is fine with genital mutilation, the life-changing events that happen to minors when they make this ‘decision’ – because they can’t possibly – to sterilize themselves and eliminate all sexual pleasure before they even hit puberty, which is what happens when you go from puberty blockers to cross-sex hormones, which he knows he knows very well. He doesn’t care,” she posited. “It’s very hard to see him as anything other than a villain.”
“I’m not for in-your-face confrontations, but, you know, live by the sword again, get harassed by the sword. That is what happened to Scott Wiener that day,” she added. “You create the Frankenstein monster and, when it turns around to try to get you, you have no one to complain to.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Burguiere by tuning in to episode 1,349 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.