Jewish Caucus calls for Pentagon accountability over Kingsley Wilson's antisemitic remarks
"The remarks are not isolated or ambiguous and have long been associated with violence and hate," the letter read.
Members of the Congressional Jewish Caucus wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday to highlight the "deeply troubling and offensive statements" of Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson.
The Jerusalem Post has previously written about Wilson, who has a history of antisemitic statements, including the promotion of the antisemitic "Great Replacement" theory, praising far-right political movements using slogans tied to neo-Nazi groups, and repeating conspiracy theories frequented in neo-Nazi circles about Leo Frank, a Jewish man who was lynched by an antisemitic mob in Georgia in 1915.
The letter, led by California Congresswoman Laura Friedman, sought clarification on the Pentagon's standards for its employees and demanded that Wilson be held accountable. It specifically asked whether Wilson's comments are acceptable under DoD standards and what precedent exists for responding to antisemitic statements from personnel.
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"The remarks are not isolated or ambiguous and have long been associated with violence and hate," the letter read. "Their presence boldly and unrepentantly plastered in the public record of a senior Department official raises serious questions about the Department's commitment to opposing extremism and antisemitism."
Recently, Hegseth responded to questions about Wilson's comments at the Senate Armed Services Committee, calling them "a mischaracterization attempting to win political points."
The letter provided Wilson's exact quotes, and asked for Hegseth's response to them. It also pressed Hegseth himself as to whether he finds the comments to be acceptable language for an official representing the Department of Defense.
The letter was signed by all 21 members of the Congressional Jewish Caucus.
Who is Kingsley Wilson?
Wilson was promoted to chief press secretary from deputy press secretary in May 2025, prompting ire from Jewish groups who raised concerns over her history of antisemitic comments.
In 2023, Wilson tweeted, “Leo Frank raped and murdered a 13-year-old girl. He also tried to frame a black man for his crime. The ADL is despicable.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) responded by saying, “White supremacists and other antisemites have long used conspiracy theories about the Leo Frank case to cast doubt on the circumstances of the antisemitic lynching of Leo Frank."
“We are deeply disturbed that any public official would parrot these hateful and false conspiracy theories, and we hope Kingsley Wilson will immediately retract her remarks.”
Then, on October 12, 2023, she posted, “The images of the babies murdered by Hamas are horrific. I wish images of aborted babies evoked a similar global outcry.”
Democrat Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York wrote a letter to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth when Wilson was first named as the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, saying that her appointment was “an insult to the Defense Department’s integrity.”
“Doing a basic search through her social media history, it is clear that her record is a minefield of antisemitic rhetoric, white nationalist conspiracies, and pro-Kremlin propaganda, making her unfit for any position of public trust, let alone one at the high levels of the Pentagon press shop,” he wrote.
Torres added that Wilson had previously trivialized Hamas’s October 7 massacre, “spreading inflammatory falsehoods that minimize the barbarity of the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-859165