Several Jewish groups have voiced outrage over the Pentagon's new deputy press secretary regarding social media comments they considered antisemitic.
The most noted post on X made by Kingsley Wilson in August was a reaction to the Anti-Defamation League marking 109 years since the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank, a Jew who had been convicted, many argued wrongly, of murdering a 13-year-old girl in Georgia. Frank was sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to life in prison by Gov. John Slaton. Frank was then abducted from prison by a mob and lynched.
"Leo Frank raped & murdered a 13-year-old girl. He also tried to frame a Black man for his crime," Wilson posted on Aug. 24. "The ADL turned off the comments [to its post] because they want to gaslight you."
Wilson was likely referring to Jim Conley, a janitor at the factory that Frank managed and where the girl worked. Frank's defense team argued that Conley, who was Black, murdered Phagan. Conley described himself as an accomplice and was sentenced to a year in prison for his role. Neo-Nazis have long claimed that Frank was guilty and that the consensus that he was framed was evidence of Jewish control of the media.
"Anyone who posts antisemitic conspiracy theories lifted right out of the neo-Nazi playbook should not be in public office," the American Jewish Committee wrote Wednesday in a post on X. "Kingsley Wilson, newly appointed @DepPressSecDOD, is clearly unfit for her role."
A spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League told Jewish Insider on Wednesday that "white supremacists and other antisemites have long used conspiracy theories about the Leo Frank case to cast doubt on the circumstances of" his "antisemitic lynching."
"We are deeply disturbed that any public official would parrot these hateful and false conspiracy theories," the spokesperson said, "and we hope Kingsley Wilson will immediately retract her remarks."
Seth Mandel, senior editor of the Jewish magazine Commentary, posted Wednesday on X, "The scapegoating and lynching of Leo Frank was the American version of William of Norwich, a foundational blood libel that is inseverable from the violence it provokes. This is the way a pogromist talks, and she's now deputy press secretary in Trump's DoD."
Wilson also has taken flak for an X post in the days following Iranian-backed Hamas’ terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that read: "The images of the babies murdered by Hamas are horrific. I wish images of aborted babies evoked a similar global outcry."
"I'm not gonna tell them who to hire, but I do know that [President Donald] Trump doesn't believe any of the things she's talking about, and I'll leave it up to them to determine if they think she's the right spokesperson," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., according to Politico. "If what you say about these posts are true, then she's completely off-script with President Trump."
Newsmax reached out to the Department of Defense and the White House for comment.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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