Stuart Seldowitz, who previously served as national security adviser to former President Barack Obama, has been fired from his position at a lobbying firm after a viral video showed him cruelly berating a Muslim cart vendor.
The video surfaced on X and appeared to show Seldowitz harassing a food cart vendor near 83rd and 2nd Avenue in New York City. Per Newsweek:
Among the remarks made in the video shot in Manhattan, Seldowitz asks the operator if he “raped [his] daughter” and calls Islamic prophet Muhammad a “rapist,” and suggests that the killing of around 4,000 Palestinian children in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas conflict “wasn’t enough.” Confirmation of Seldowitz’s identity arrived when his current employer, lobbying firm Gotham Government Relations, announced that they had fully parted ways with him.
Video also surfaced appearing to show that Seldowitz had engaged in this type of bullying behavior on at least one other occasion.
After the videos were released on social media, Gotham Government Relations, the firm where Seldowitz worked, dropped all affiliation with him, calling the video “vile, racist, and beneath the dignity of the standards we practice at our firm.” pic.twitter.com/iUL2C1gNiu
— VICE News (@VICENews) November 21, 2023
Gotham Government Relations, the lobbying firm that employed Seldowitz, later announced that it had severed ties with him.
“Gotham Government Relations has ended all affiliation with Stuart Seldowitz, an individual who hasn’t contributed to our work in years,” it said. “The video of his actions is vile, racist, and beneath the dignity of the standards we practice at our firm.”
A New York police spokesperson said police are aware of the videos and are “monitoring the situation.”
According to Vice, Seldowitz served as “acting director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate under Obama and was deputy director/senior political officer in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003.”
“More recently, he served as foreign affairs chair for Gotham Government Relations, which announced his new role in a press release in November 2022,” it added.
Seldowitz has released no statement on the matter and the backlash against him on social media has been fierce.
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. A high-quality, ad-free stream can also be purchased on Google Play or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
