A former Obama-era National Security Council official has been captured in a series of videos using hate-laden and Islamophobic language to taunt a New York City food cart vendor.
The former official, Stuart Seldowitz, confirmed to CNN in an email it is him in the videos, which were recorded by a vendor from inside a food cart on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and appear to be from different days.
In the videos, Seldowitz mocks Islam, taunts the man about his citizenship status, accuses him of supporting Hamas and references the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
“You support killing little children,” Seldowitz says to the vendor in one video. The vendor retorts, “You kill children, not me.”
Seldowitz replies, “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian children, you know what? It wasn’t enough!”
The New York City Police Department told CNN on Tuesday that a commanding officer is aware of the videos and local precinct personnel “are monitoring the situation.”
The videos come as the US is experiencing an “unprecedented” increase in reported anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias incidents since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, according to the Council on American-Islamic relations.
At the same time, the reports of antisemitic incidents across the country have also spiked, with FBI Director Christopher Wray saying last month the threat was reaching “historic levels” and the Anti-Defamation Leaguereporting a 388% increase in reported incidents in the weeks following October 7, compared to the same period last year.
In one of the videos posted online, Seldowitz tells the vendor, “We’re going to put big signs here saying this guy believes in Hamas.”