Lee Zeldin Calls for NYT’s Tom Wright-Piersanti to Be Fired for Antisemitism

Appearing Thursday on the Fox News Channel’s America’s Newsroom, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) said New York Times politics editor Tom Wright-Piersanti should be fired for his past racist and antisemitic tweets.

Zeldin made the plea as part of his comments on how the far-left “The Squad” remain unchecked by the House Democrat leadership for their repeated antisemitism and anti-Israel positions.

“An editor from the New York Times is scrubbing his [Twitter] account, this guy Tom Wright-Piersanti, because he was self-describing himself as an antisemite and he was going after Jews and others,” remarked Zeldin, who is Jewish, before adding that the journalist “should be fired.”

The New York Republican’s comments come after a review of Wright-Piersant’s past Twitter activity by Breitbart News show the Times editor of five years wrote various bigoted and anti-Jewish tweets. In one tweet, the reporter said in the early morning of New Years Day in 2010: “I was going to say ‘Crappy Jew Year,’ but one of my resolutions is to be less anti-Semitic. So…. HAPPY Jew Year. You Jews.”

Additionally, several other posts show Wright-Piersanti making racially charged comments about Indians. “There are four indian guys with mohawks in this one class, and each one is a douche in his own awful way. I hate mohawk Indians,” he wrote in December 2009.

Following Breitbart News’ report, Wright-Piersanti apologized for his “offensive” tweets and deleted several of them.

I have deleted tweets from a decade ago that are offensive. I am deeply sorry.

— Tom Wright-Piersanti (@tomwp) August 22, 2019

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham slammed Wright-Piersanti’s racist remarks, telling Breitbart News that she is “disgusted” by the racism displayed by the Times editor. 

“I am disgusted but not surprised by this latest revelation out of the New York Times,” said Grisham. “Will there be consequences? Doubtful. The New York Times is too busy weaponizing journalism to harass this President and the people who work for him to bother holding their own people accountable.”