‘Crappy Jew Year’: New York Times Editor’s Antisemitism, Racism Exposed

A New York Times political editor has a years-long history of antisemitic and racist comments on his Twitter page, a Breitbart News investigation has found.

Tom Wright-Piersanti, who has been a Senior Staff Editor at the New York Times for more than five years according to his LinkedIn page and according to his Twitter page oversees the newspaper’s political coverage, has made a series of antisemitic and racist tweets over the years. Many of them are still public on his Twitter page as of the publication of this article, but some have since been deleted.

The revelation of these tweets come in the wake of the executive editor of the Times stating that the newspaper intends to target the president on racial issues over the next couple years, after the newspaper’s efforts on the Russia hoax scandal failed.

One tweet that is still public is from the early morning of New Years Day in 2010, when he admits he is antisemitic but announced that his New Years resolution was to be less antisemitic—even though the tweet’s content mocks Jewish people.

“I was going to say ‘Crappy Jew Year,’ but one of my resolutions is to be less anti-Semitic,” Wright-Piersanti tweeted on Jan. 1, 2010, at 9:35 a.m. “So…. HAPPY Jew Year. You Jews.”

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.

— Tom Wright-Piersanti (@tomwp) January 1, 2010

Another one from the evening of Dec. 15, 2009, includes a photograph of a vehicle with what looks like a Menorah–culturally and religiously associated with the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah–on the roof. Wright-Piersanti commented: “Who called the Jew-police?” Breitbart News has not been able to determine what Wright meant by “the Jew-police,” and the New York Times has not yet responded to requests for comment on this matter.

http://twitpic.com/tp39o – Who called the Jew-police?

— Tom Wright-Piersanti (@tomwp) December 16, 2009

That tweet, and the photograph of the Menorah-bearing vehicle, are also still public on the New York Times politics editor’s Twitter feed as of the publication of this story.

The revelation that a politics editor in the Times newsroom—who has spent years there working on countless stories—has had this antisemitic content on his Twitter feed, still publicly available, for all the years he has worked there and for several years prior to the Times hiring him comes amid a raft of other problems with antisemitism from the left and from the Times in particular. It also comes as the Times’ editorial board lectured the president on antisemitism in an editorial published Wednesday evening.

“In the bloody history of modern anti-Semitism, one of the most common justifications for violence is the inflammatory canard that the loyalty of Jewish citizens is suspect,” the paper’s editorial board wrote. “President Trump has repeatedly employed that libel in recent days as part of a verbal assault on the Democratic Party. Such language is traditionally used to incite anger against Jews. Mr. Trump, surreally, is employing it in an effort to win Jewish votes.”

Perhaps ironically, the Times’ own news desk staff is now being exposed here as having the antisemitic views the newspaper’s editorial board falsely claims come from the president–just the latest in a long line of recent scandals of serious antisemitism inside the New York Times.

When asked to respond to the tweets from Wright-Piersanti, U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell—a leading voice in the global fight against antisemitism—told Breitbart News that it is “very troubling” that Wright-Piersanti is making newsroom decisions at the Times particularly in the wake of the Times’ issues with antisemitic cartoons that promoted the newspaper to halt printing of cartoons in its international edition altogether. Ambassador Grenell told Breitbart News:

Anti-Semitism is on the rise. It is a human problem. We see it in the U.S., in Germany, in Europe – everywhere. But when antisemitic comments like these come from a New York Times newsroom insider, it is very troubling – especially because the NYT just decided to stop running political cartoons because they couldn’t stop the antisemitism coming from their cartoonists.

The antisemitic content from a politics editor at the New York Times drew more sharp condemnations from across the political spectrum.

“This editor needs to be fired immediately and the New York Times leadership needs to explain how and why they overlooked this inflammatory and inappropriate language,” Sean Spicer, former White House press secretary, told Breitbart News when he was showed the tweets.

Dr. Sebastian Gorka, a former White House adviser who currently hosts a nationally syndicated radio program, told Breitbart News that this is to be expected out of the Times.

“Since Walter Duranty’s apologia for the murderous Soviet regime, to the rank anti-Semitic cartoons of 2019, the New York Times has become a cess-pit of hatred and bigotry,” Gorka said in a statement when asked to review Wright-Piersanti’s tweets.

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), America’s longest-running pro-Israel group, is calling for the Times to fire Wright-Piersanti and conduct an internal editorial review of every piece of content he has been involved in publishing over his five plus years with the newspaper.

“The Zionist Organization of America urges the New York Times to immediately dismiss this individual and to undertake a review of all of the stories that he has edited for possible antisemitic bias,’” a spokesperson for ZOA told Breitbart News.

Antisemitic content is not the only racially insensitive content that Wright-Piersanti has published on his Twitter feed. Wright-Piersanti also sent out a racially insensitive tweet on May 18, 2010, that he has since deleted from his Twitter feed: “With asian babies, is it racist to say to the parents, ‘Aw, he looks just like you!’? What if you say it before you see any pictures?”

Wright-Piersanti also sent out a number of messages about Indian people as well, bashing them repeatedly over a number of years.

On Dec. 8, 2009, he tweeted at 10:39 a.m.: “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.”

Moments later, he further clarified his specific racial hatred as those from India, not Native Americans: “I don’t hate Mohawk Indians, though. I love those guys. I just hate Indians with mohawks. Different indians, different mohawks.”

On Nov. 24, 2009, he tweeted at 10:35 a.m.: “Two high-voiced indian guys keep calling each other ‘dawg’ and they aren’t doing it as a joke. Fuck THAT shit.”

A moment later, he added in another tweet that is still publicly available: “That’s it! From here on out, none of you can call me ginger except other gingers. And don’t pull that ‘I was saying ‘gingA’’ crap.”

That’s it! From here on out, none of you can call me ginger except other gingers. And don’t pull that “I was saying ‘gingA'” crap.

— Tom Wright-Piersanti (@tomwp) December 23, 2009

He also attacked farmers with sexual innuendo in another tweet on Dec. 26, 2009. “Horticulture sounds like Whore-tit-culture, those sick fuck farmers are probably whacking off onto their crops right now,” Wright-Piersanti wrote in that tweet.

Horticulture sounds like Whore-tit-culture, those sick fuck farmers are probably whacking off onto their crops right now

— Tom Wright-Piersanti (@tomwp) December 26, 2009

In response to these revelations, a former White House official who is a person of color told Breitbart News that Wright-Piersanti’s tweets demonstrate an endemic culture of hatred inside the establishment media organization.

“The vile hatred spewed by this New York Times editor is indicative of how liberal media continues to condone, promote, and celebrate racism,” the former White House official said. “As a person of color, I am all too aware of how media marginalizes minorities and this is another example of that intolerant behavior being given a global platform to fester on the pages of the New York Times.”

Arthur Schwartz, a GOP strategist and adviser to President Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump, Jr., told Breitbart News that he expects the Times will promote him for his antisemitism rather than hold him accountable.

“This is hardly surprising coming from the newspaper that promotes and protects ‘The Squad’ and countless other bigots and hate mongers,” Schwartz said. “He’ll probably get a promotion.”

Industry insiders also ripped the Times for this, with one television news producer telling Breitbart News the Times employing people like Wright-Piersanti in newsroom decision-making positions is particularly harmful to those who seek to do actual journalism.

“The consistent disregard, not only of journalistic integrity but of integrity… period by members of outlets with national reach like the NYT is reprehensible,” the producer of local television news told Breitbart News. “This individual needs to be fired and publicly denounced as he does irreparable damage to those doing unbiased, ACTUAL reporting across the country. He is a disgrace to our profession.”

A Times spokesperson has not responded to detailed questions from Breitbart News about Wright-Piersanti’s tweets. The Times has also not specifically answered if Wright-Piersanti was involved in publishing or editing a story from reporter Elizabeth Williamson attacking White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, or whether Wright-Piersanti has been involved in editing or publishing pieces from other high profile reporters including Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Martin, Annie Karni, Michael Grynbaum, Jeremy Peters, Glenn Thrush, Lisa Lerer, or other well-known Times reporters.

In the wake of its last antisemitism scandal—the publication of antisemitic cartoons in its international edition—the Times announced significant changes would be coming to the paper. It is unclear exactly what changes, other than stopping publication of all editorial cartoons altogether, have been implemented.

The Times has had a serious problem with antisemitism and racism in recent years. In addition to the cartoon scandal, the newspaper also hired onto its editorial board Sarah Jeong—a writer who has made a series of racist comments over the course of her career.

This also comes after the newspaper demoted its deputy Washington bureau chief Jonathan Weisman in the wake of serious lapses in judgment.

In addition to that, this comes in the wake of Times executive editor Dean Baquet said in a town hall meeting, per a transcript of it, that the Times intends to spend the next two years of Trump’s presidency heaving accusations of racism around–crafting a narrative around race–planning said narrative in advance. He said that is the plan after the first two years of trying to wipe out Trump with the Russia hoax scandal failed after Special Counsel Robert Mueller fell short in his report and congressional testimony, which is another narrative Baquet admitted to crafting in advance.

The Times has come under intense scrutiny for these serious lapses in judgment by Baquet, including from Trump and GOP lawmakers like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX):

It is unclear how Baquet intends to push this narrative of race surrounding Trump when all Trump and his supporters need to do in response now is point to the fact that Baquet has empowered actual racism by employing people like Wright-Piersanti–who as of this writing still works at the Times even though the newspaper is now definitely aware of these tweets.

UPDATE 9:05 a.m. ET:

After the publication of this article, Wright-Piersanti stealth-deleted one of the antisemitic tweets–the one in which he says “crappy Jew year” and admits he is antisemitic. He has offered no public comment on the matter as of this time, and Times spokeswomen Danielle Rhoades-Ha and Eileen Murphy have not responded to requests for comment and detailed questions for this piece, including a subsequent request on Wright-Piersanti’s stealth deletion of a tweet admitting he is antisemitic, an action he has made without comment or explanation.

What’s more, in initial response to this story, Trump, Jr., the president’s eldest son, and others have been extraordinarily critical of the Times and Wright-Piersanti.

It remains to be seen what will happen next, but for now Wright-Piersanti appears to be attempting to cover up his past antisemitic comments.

UPDATE 9:14 a.m. ET:

Wright-Piersanti has deleted several more of the tweets, including the one about the “Jew-police” and the one with the sexual innuendo about farmers. Another he sent about “ginger” people has been deleted too, but the several comments he made attacking Indian people remain public as of this update. The Times has still not responded to requests for comment.

UPDATE 9:24 a.m. ET:

Now, Wright-Piersanti has hidden his Twitter account from the public, shifting his account to private in an effort to cover up any comments he has made on anything. The Timesspokeswomen, Rhoades-Ha and Murphy, have not replied to a follow-up request for comment on whether they think Wright-Piersanti hiding his Twitter account from the newspaper’s readers and the public–in addition to stealth-deleting several of these tweets highlighted by Breitbart News–is an acceptable action from a politics editor for the paper.

UPDATE 9:26 a.m. ET: 

Now, Wright-Piersanti’s Twitter account is back to public and he sent out this brief statement on how and why he deleted the racist and antisemitic tweets he just deleted on Thursday morning:

The Times has still not responded to requests for comment on whether they find his behavior and commentary acceptable.

Story cited here.