The Hatchet’s editorial board endorsed Brady Forrest for Student Association Executive Vice President Monday. We made our endorsement based on Forrest’s platform and his answers to questions during our endorsement hearing. But based on an anti-Semitic Facebook post he originally published in 2014 that surfaced online the night before voting, The Hatchet’s editorial board rescinds our endorsement of Forrest.
Two screenshots of Facebook posts written by Forrest were posted in the Facebook group “Overheard at GW” Monday night. In one of the posts, Forrest called groups like GW Hillel and the Jewish Student Association “complicit with and supportive of the state of Israel and programs and ideology that is exclusive and racist.” In an interview with The Hatchet that night, Forrest stood by the 2014 post.
At the time of his endorsement hearing, we were unaware of Forrest’s anti-Semitic Facebook post. The post alienated an entire group of students on campus by conflating all people of a religion, political view and nationality as being “racist.” Although it was written in 2014, he was already an SA senator at the time. It is deeply concerning that someone who was supposed to be a voice and representative for all students is on the record sharing their disgust of a group and several student organizations. We cannot support a candidate who has made anti-Semitic comments and has voiced such strong opposition to such a large group of students on campus.
We will not endorse Ojani Walthrust, the remaining candidate. The editorial board made our endorsement decisions based on candidates’ platforms and our hearings with the candidates. We will not be endorsing a candidate for SA executive vice president in the 2018 SA election.
The editorial board is composed of Hatchet staff members and operates separately from the newsroom. This week’s piece was written by opinions editor Irene Ly and contributing opinions editor Renee Pineda, based on discussions with managing director Melissa Holzberg, sports editor Matt Cullen, copy editor Melissa Schapiro and design editor Zach Slotkin.
