A San Francisco board of supervisors candidate called a Jewish journalist a Nazi and claimed that critics were members of a terrorist group, in a now edited Wednesday Instagram post.
In a screenshot shared by California journalist Gil Duran, District 4 supervisors board candidate Leanna Louie called journalist Joe Eskenazi "EskeNAZI" after he had written an expose about her.
View this post on Instagram
"I did not know Joe Eskenazi was Jewish."
Leanna Louie
"EskeNAZI totally wrote what he wanted and called his friends and members of the Weather Underground from Michigan, Berkeley, and other places to validate his points," read the screenshot of the original post.
The Weather Underground was a left-wing domestic terrorist organization active in the 1970s.
Backlash for calling a journalist a Nazi
"Cool to call a Jewish person a Nazi for doing their job," remarked one Instagram commenter. "Screenshots last forever."
"I did not know Joe Eskenazi was Jewish," Louie said in response to the backlash on her Instagram account. "How can I tell if someone is Jewish or not anyways? Assuming that someone is any race, religion, cultural background, sexual orientation or gender is not general practice of mine. He’s a human being to me. Period."
Eskenazi had written an article last Tuesday in the Mission Local revealing that Louie was under investigation by city officials to have possibly engaged in voter fraud. According to the Local, Louie had admitted that she had voted in District 10 while registered in 4.How toxic are San Francisco politics? Leanna Louie, candidate for Board of Supervisors, just posted this. It refers to Joe Eskenazi, who is Jewish, as EskeNAZI. He’s the @MLNow reporter who broke the story about her serious legal troubles.Time to end the campaign, Leanna. pic.twitter.com/zBq9UDXDE9
— gil duran (@gilduran76) August 24, 2022
She also owned a home in a third district. Eskenazi reported that the city attorney had demanded a meeting with the candidate, in which she would provide bills, statements, documents, tax forms proving her residency in District 4.
"I love how I Iive a transparent life and people make up stuff about me to sensationalize me," Louie tweeted on Saturday.
Louie's campaign did not immediately respond to The Jerusalem Post's request for comment.