Three progressive leaders in Colorado are now publicly pressing Melat Kiros over her refusal to call the Boulder firebombing antisemitic, turning a recent interview into one of the last major flashpoints before the primary election. Kiros, who is running to represent the 1st Congressional District in Denver, said she did not know what was in the perpetrator’s heart and would not say what motivated the attack.
That answer landed because the attack was not abstract. On June 1, 2025, demonstrators in Boulder were targeted during their weekly gathering to raise awareness of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Mohamed Sabry Soliman is serving a life sentence after being convicted of carrying out the assault, in which he shouted “Free Palestine!” while using a makeshift flamethrower and throwing homemade bombs. Karen Diamond, 82, later died from injuries she suffered in the attack.
In the interview with 9News, Kiros said, “I don’t know what was in the heart of the perpetrator,” and added that she did not know what the people at the protest believed either. She said, “All I know is that he went and attacked innocent people because of what they might have believed,” then noted that most of those at the rally were there to call for the return of hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attack.
Julie Gonzales said Kiros missed “a moment and an opportunity” for community healing. Yara Zokaie, who had endorsed Kiros, said she was disappointed in the answer and called the Boulder attack “an antisemitic attack and a horrific act of violence that all leaders should condemn.” David Seligman said the attack was clearly antisemitic and said it was wrong for Kiros to answer that way. The criticism matters because Kiros’ refusal to use the word antisemitic is now part of a broader dispute over how she talks about Israel and the Jewish community as she tries to dislodge Diana DeGette, who has been in Congress for 30 years.
The political test is simple: in a race this close to the finish, one answer can harden support as easily as it can narrow it. Kiros is still in the fight, and the criticism from allies and rivals alike may not decide the primary by itself, but it has given her opponents a way to frame her as out of step with voters who see the Boulder attack as unmistakably antisemitic. For now, the question is not whether the dispute is real. It is whether Kiros can keep enough of the coalition around her to make the final days count.
