As Matt covered earlier, it's been quite the day for Aidan Maese-Czeropski, a staffer of Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD). Not only is there a gay sex in the Senate story here, but The Daily Caller also reported that Maese-Czeropski was the one who yelled "Free Palestine" at Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) earlier this week during his interview with NBC News' Ali Vitali. The Washington Free Beacon reported as much as well, with Miller having spoken to the outlet earlier in the week about the incident.
Can confirm that the @SenatorCardin staffer who filmed himself having sex in a senate hearing room is this guy.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 15, 2023
Aidan Maese-Czeropski.
He's also the same guy who yelled "Free Palestine" at Jewish Rep. Max Miller on Wednesday. https://t.co/nM9uzWIYg9 pic.twitter.com/ULffKqj8eY
Snapshot from the halls of the Hill: a House staffer just passed by GOP Rep. Max Miller —who is Jewish and has been supportive of sending aide to Israel— and said “free Palestine.” Pretty rare and stunning to see staff challenge members to their faces this way.
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) December 13, 2023
When Vitali posted about the incident on Wednesday, not much was known at the time, including the identity of the staffer. Neither Vitali in her post nor Miller in giving an interview to The Washington Free Beacon spoke to Maese-Czeropski's identity, or even who he worked for.
Vitali, in an interesting choice of words, referred to Maese-Czeropski's move, when he was then unnamed, as "[p]retty rare and stunning," categorizing it as a staff challeng[ing] members to their faces."
Her post was met with close to 400 replies of people calling for the staffer's identity, for the staffer to be fired, as well as weighed in on how disturbing it is that staffer's have behaved in such a way.
Hill staffers are suddenly under the odd impression today that they are in charge and set policy.
— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) December 13, 2023
They do not.
When I worked on the Hill only 6 years ago, it would have been unthinkable for staff to talk to a member this way.
That staffer should be fired immediately.
The lanuage of Vitali's post was also a bit different from how Miller described the exchange to The Washington Free Beacon:
"We're just having a casual conversation, and out of nowhere, this guy beelines up to me visibly shaking—he's very upset in my presence because he's a snowflake," Miller told the Free Beacon." And he just comes right back up to me and was like, ‘Free Palestine.’ And I was like, ‘Okay.’ … I'm not going to give him a reaction because that's what he wants."
Miller said Vitali was shocked by the exchange. "She was like, ‘Wow, that was blatant anti-Semitism from a staffer, and you're a member of Congress,’" he continued. "And I said, ‘Ali, this happens to me every day. … And I hope that you say something about it.’" Vitali, who did not return a request for comment, refrained from calling the exchange anti-Semitic in a social media post, writing instead that it was "stunning to see staff challenge members to their faces this way."
Vitali is right in that the exchange is certainly a "snapshot."
Democrats and young people have been not only increasingly less than supportive of Israel--as polls continue to show--but increasingly anti-Israel and pro-Hamas. Incidents in real time are showing them to be anti-semitic as well.
Although many have continued to chime in on Vitali's post to share the update of the staffer's identity, Vitali has not posted further about the incident. She has not posted at all since Thursday.
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