Controversial far-left New York House hopeful Darializa Avila Chevalier refused to answer when pressed by The Post Friday about past comments that parroted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justification for invading Ukraine.
“I’m not sure about the context of those tweets, where they are coming from,” Avila Chevalier told The Post while speaking to reporters in Harlem Friday.
“I do not remember the context of those tweets in 2022,” Chevalier — running for New York’s 13th House District with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsement – repeated, even when the posts themselves were read aloud.
Those posts date back to February 2022 – just as Russian tanks were rolling into Ukraine and kicking off the ongoing bloody war – and saw Chevalier claiming the US was only helping defend the invaded nation because it loved “bullying” the Kremlin.
“Cause the Cold War ended and we’ve been bullying Russia ever since,” she replied to a post asking what the US was doing getting involved in the war.
“Also war is lucrative for these sociopaths,” she wrote.
The tweets echoed Putin’s justifications for attacking Ukraine that the Russian strongman rolled out ahead of the invasion, even using the word “bullying” at a rally a year before the assault.
Chevalier’s comments were first reported by Politico earlier Friday, and a reporter for the outlet said “She has definitely had time to review the context,” noting they had shown the candidate the posts a day prior.
Her campaign also refused to comment on who she was referring to with the phrase “these sociopaths.”
Chevalier has come under scrutiny since Mamdani shockingly endorsed her last week over longtime incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the June 23 Democratic primary for the district that covers Upper Manhattan and portions of the West Bronx.
The high-profile endorsement put the Democratic Socialists of America member, who volunteered on Mamdani’s mayoral campaign, in the spotlight — exposing a series of questionable comments and actions.
Among them were a series of vile posts where she called the US a “f—ing disgrace,” former President Joe Biden a “war criminal” and “rapist” and disparaged interracial couples with white women as “fetishizing ugly colonizer women.”
She also attended an anti-Israel rally in Times Square just the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre on the Jewish state, which celebrated the terror attack that left 1,200 dead as an act of resistance.
Chevalier – who has claimed online that “Israel doesn’t exist” — was also pressed Friday about why she attended the rally — and doubled down on her disdain for the Jewish state.
“Listen, like so many other rallies, sometimes there are people there who are who share a different view from you,” she said. “I have always condemned the celebration of acts of violence, that is not that’s not a view I share.
“I have seen a pattern in which whenever there is an incident, the state of Israel engages in a response that is often disproportionate and creates a greater loss of life, and that was what that is what I was there to stand against.”
Chavalier added that she had already condemned Hamas.
But the comments were just her latest disparagement of Israel.
In August 2020 she retweeted a post reading “Israel suddenly disappears, your third emoji is your reaction” – and replied with “Trick question — Israel doesn’t exist!”
Another one, from May 2021, saw her write “I’m an anti-Zionist full stop.”
And in December 2019, Chevalier bragged about wiping her hands on American flags when she needed a napkin.
She has rushed to brush off her controversial past online, insisting she won’t relitigate her past comments.
Such questionable online behavior is just the latest to rock Mamdani’s camp.
The mayor’s own wife, Rama Duwaji, has come under fire for staunchly anti-Israel behavior – with even an anti-Israel playlist of hers featuring bizarre songs like “hungry but sexy for palestine” emerging.
And Catherine Almonte Da Costa, who Mamdani briefly tapped to be the city’s director of appointments, resigned in December after she was exposed for a slew of antisemitic posts that included one reading “Money hungry Jews smh.”
Espaillat, the first Dominican-American member of Congress, is endorsed by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.