Politics
Pro-Palestinian activists prepare to rally at Democratic convention in Chicago
He walked down a side street, eyes darting here and there, wondering how it would unfold.
“What kind of fences will the police have? Will they bring dogs?” Hatem Abudayyeh asked. He stopped in the shadow of the United Center, home of the NBA’s Bulls and the NHL’s Blackhawks and a draw for tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who are expected to protest against U.S. support for Israel at the Democratic National Convention this month. “I hope they don’t militarize it,” he said. “The first statement the police made was about mass arrests. They’ve backed off a little. But they’re trying to intimidate us.”
The son of Palestinian immigrants, Abudayyeh is one of the march’s organizers and has long been at the center of civil rights protests. He was investigated by the FBI more than a decade ago — no charges were brought — and in 2017 he helped block traffic at Chicago O’Hare International Airport over then-President Trump’s Muslim travel ban. The demonstration he is preparing comes as this onetime city of stockyards and slaughterhouses hopes it can avoid the chaos and police brutality that marked the antiwar protests that engulfed the Democrats’ convention here in 1968.
Hatem Abudayyeh, a longtime Palestinian activist and organizer, is preparing for a march on the Democratic National Convention at Chicago’s United Center this month.
(Alex Garcia / For The Times)
“Palestine is this generation’s Vietnam War,” Abudayyeh said, noting that more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, have been killed by Israeli forces since Hamas attacked Israel in October. “We’re unabashed about the Palestinian right to self-defense to end Israeli genocide. We have momentum. I don’t think we’ll lose any steam with [President] Biden out of the race. Kamala Harris and other Democrats are still backing Israel.”
Abudayyeh’s parents emigrated from the Israeli-occupied West Bank village of Al Jib and settled on Chicago’s North Side in the 1960s. Both were activists and community leaders, who on Sundays drove their son to Arab neighborhoods on the South Side so he would know his lineage and learn that social change comes from sacrifice and solidarity. That lesson has kept him on the front lines of hundreds of demonstrations. But few as consequential as the national stage he and his compatriots from more than 150 organizations will find themselves on when an energized Democratic Party arrives here with the expectation of nominating Harris for president.
“I don’t feel there’s anything to lose,” said Abudayyeh, 53, a large man with glimmers of gray in his beard who calls himself an “anti-imperialist” and sounds at times like a provocateur from a long-ago newsreel. “We’ve already dealt with political repression. We know the feds are here and will be crawling up and down Chicagoland.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters chant at University of Chicago police officers as a student encampment is dismantled in May.
(Charles Rex Arbogast / Associated Press)
The Chicago Police Department has been training to de-escalate threats of unrest at the convention and is calling in hundreds of law enforcement officers from across the state for backup. The department — just weeks after a Fourth of July weekend that saw more than 100 shootings citywide — is under intensifying pressure over security after the assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last month. This comes after a 2021 report by the city’s Office of Inspector General found the department was marred by confusion and intelligence failures during violence related to the George Floyd protests a year earlier.
The police will “not only allow everyone who comes here to express their 1st Amendment rights, but we will protect their rights while doing it,” department Supt. Larry Snelling told reporters recently. “What we will not tolerate is vandalism to our city. What we will not tolerate is violence.”
Activists at the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression prepare protest signs for demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention.
(Alex Garcia / For The Times)
The overall goal of the protest — organizers have condemned the Democratic Party as being “a tool of billionaires and corporations” — is ending U.S. military aid to Israel and the creation of an independent Palestinian state. That same demand ignited demonstrations that shook college campuses in the spring. But the protesters in the March on the DNC 2024 come from many causes, including immigrant, reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, anti-racist networks and those seeking to stop police repression in minority communities.
“We are in unconditional solidarity with the Palestine liberation movement,” said Frank Chapman, a mentor to Abudayyeh and field organizer and education director of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. “Our political destinies are entwined. All those billions of dollars going to Israel could be used to build up America and reverse the injustices against Black Americans. You can’t have a war on poverty and at the same time perpetuate genocide overseas.”
Activists stapled together protest signs on a recent evening at the alliance’s South Side headquarters, where a picture of Malcolm X hung on the wall, and outside, not far from the L train, a man carried an open bottle in a crumpled bag and wandered beneath a sign for Living Hope Church and a lawyer’s billboard that read, “Call Top Dog.” The activists ranged in age from students to a gray-haired man; they moved swiftly and quietly stacking signs near the windows like a small army waiting to advance.
New York delegates protest U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War on the floor of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
(Getty Images)
“It feels like we’re building something,” Adrian Gallegos, a computer science major at the University of Illinois Chicago, said next to rows of “Stop Police Crimes” signs. The air was sharp with the spirit of rebellion, as if one were listening to Jimi Hendrix while eavesdropping on the 1960s anti-establishment musings of Black Panther deputy chairman Fred Hampton or Yippie activist Abbie Hoffman.
“The system has been exploiting and oppressing people for 400 years,” said Kobi Guillory, co-chair of the Chicago alliance. “It’s inevitable it will crumble under the weight of its own contradictions.”
The 1968 peace movement “was a mostly white-led movement. This is not,” said Chapman, a revered figure in the city’s civil rights scene for half a century. “The struggle for peace today is more multi-ethnic and multi-international. It is broader and deeper than the antiwar movement around Vietnam. This will lead to a political realignment for people of color and working-class white people who want change.”
Abudayyeh sees similarities to and contrasts with 56 years ago. The 1968 convention followed Democrat incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson’s decision not to seek another term; this year Biden dropped out of the race. Then and now, the Democrats were divided over unpopular wars. But the Israel-Hamas war is different from the Vietnam War, which consumed the American imagination for years, killing more than 58,000 U.S. service members and an estimated 2 million to 3 million Vietnamese. Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip is supported by U.S. military aid, but Washington has not declared war, and no American soldiers are dying.
What’s more, the politics of Chicago and the country are not the same as in 1968, when the nightly news echoed with reports of rioting and the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Back then, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, who was known as “the Boss,” ordered a clampdown on dissent, and police attacked protesters with billy clubs and tear gas, leaving hundreds arrested or injured. Current Mayor Brandon Johnson is a progressive and onetime union organizer who has supported activists and in June ordered a task force to study making reparations to Black residents.
The protests at this year’s convention will confront a troubled and distracted land. The assassination attempt against Trump, Biden’s departure, the rise of Harris and battles over abortion, inflation, book banning, housing prices and other issues have left many Americans inward-looking and dispirited about the future. But Abudayyeh said the injustices against Palestinians are visceral enough to force Democrats, including Harris, who has been more forceful than Biden in criticizing Israel for creating a “humanitarian catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip, to take notice of the marchers’ demands at the convention.
Chicago police officers forcefully disperse demonstrators outside the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 29, 1968.
(Michael Boyer / Associated Press)
“Yes,” he said, “the timing is right.”
The other day, Abudayyeh, wearing a face mask after a bout with COVID-19, drove beyond his office at the Arab American Action Network, where he is executive director, to an Arab neighborhood of sweet shops, jewelry stores and beauty academies. The streets and swirling dialects connected him to Palestinians, like his deceased parents, who emigrated here after Middle East wars and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
“They always wanted to return home, but [Palestinians are] now an established presence in Chicago,” said Abudayyeh, who has a daughter, and is also national chair for the U.S. Palestinian Community Network. “It took my parents 25 years to buy a house and give up on the dream of going back.”
The conversation, as often with Abudayyeh, who seems to be in many places at once, turned in a new direction. Protest organizers, he said, have been in a months-long struggle with the city on a route that would allow demonstrators to march close to the United Center.
Hatem Abudayyeh speaks in downtown Chicago in January 2009, protesting against Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip.
(Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)
“We’re making progress,” he said. “When we first filed for a permit, the city wanted to keep us four miles away from the center.” The new plan allows protesters to gather at and march from Union Park, several blocks from the site. “We’re within sight and sound,” he said, “but they’re not giving us a long enough route to accommodate tens of thousands of people.”
Abudayyeh is accustomed to the reach of the state. Two years after working with antiwar activists at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., the FBI raided his home, seizing computers, files, books and documents. His bank accounts were frozen. The sweep was part of an investigation into about two dozen activists in the Midwest suspected of supporting international terrorist organizations. Abudayyeh was targeted over helping arrange delegations to Gaza and the West Bank of activists opposed to Israeli occupation.
He said he had no connection to militant groups. Months earlier, he had been invited to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the West Wing of the White House, for an outreach meeting for Arab Americans. Activists and community leaders came to his defense. He refused to answer a grand jury subpoena, and more than two years later his confiscated materials were returned and no charges were filed.
“This is a massive escalation of the attacks on people that do Palestine support work in this country and antiwar work,” he said at the time. “We’re not going to stop speaking out against U.S. support of Israel’s violations of the Palestinian people.”
Abudayyeh coordinated the defense committee in 2017 for Rasmea Odeh, a Palestinian activist imprisoned in Israel for her involvement in two bombings in Jerusalem in 1969. Above, Odeh is joined by supporters outside a federal courthouse in Detroit in 2017.
(Carlos Osorio / Associated Press)
Abudayyeh’s statements and sentiments are often provocative in an age when some protesters against the Gaza war have been assailed as antisemitic or for espousing terrorism for their support of Hamas. He has called Hamas “a legitimate resistance force” and has said “the real terrorists are the governments and military forces of the U.S. and Israel.” When Iran retaliated against Israel with missiles and drones in April, Abudayyeh broke the news during an activist meeting, where a few in the crowd cheered.
In 2017, Abudayyeh coordinated the defense committee for Rasmea Odeh, a Palestinian activist imprisoned in Israel for her involvement in two bombings in Jerusalem in 1969. Odeh said she confessed after being tortured by the Israeli military. She was released in a prisoner swap a decade later and eventually moved to Chicago, where she was associate director of the Arab American Action Network. She became an American citizen but was deported after pleading guilty to not disclosing her criminal history to immigration officials.
Abudayyeh’s activism has been ingrained since childhood. His father, who worked for an insurance company, was a co-founder of the Arab Community Center, and his mother was Chicago chapter president for the Union of Palestinian Women’s Assns. He attended UCLA in the early 1990s, studying biology and English and hoping to join a progressive campus culture. Instead, he said, he found a mostly white and well-to-do population that was uninterested in activism, except for Latino students who taught him about the Chicano movement.
Abudayyeh stands outside the office of the Arab American Action Network in Chicago in 2011.
(Charles Rex Arbogast / Associated Press)
“I saw that social change wasn’t going to happen at UCLA,” he said, noting that that was no longer the case, given the university’s pro-Palestinian protests in recent months. He left campus and returned to Chicago, where he coached high school basketball and was increasingly drawn to civil rights issues and working with the Palestinian community. In 2002, he traveled to Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank as part of a program to teach young Arab and Palestinian Americans and others about the Israeli occupation so they could return to the U.S. to help organize for Palestinian independence.
“I came back from that trip transformed,” he said. “I think for a while I had felt diaspora guilt. I realized I had to commit more of my life to ending the occupation. I owed it to my parents and my grandparents and cousins of mine who did not have the opportunity I had to grow up in safety and security. They faced bullets and repression.”
The morning after his drive to the Arab neighborhood, Abudayyeh parked near Union Park and walked toward the United Center in west Chicago. He approached from a side street, wondering how close he could get during the convention. He talked logistics and spoke of the St. Paul Principles for protest — put together by activists at the 2008 Republican convention — that call for solidarity and opposing “any state repression of dissent including surveillance, infiltration, disruption and violence.”
The parking lots were empty. A local film crew was shooting video. “I know the camera guys,” he said. “The reporters don’t always come to our protests. But the photo guys do. They know me.” He turned and walked back toward Union Park. He mentioned that his father never finished college; he had children and relatives back in Al Jib to support. It was that way for many, he said, turning past First Baptist Church, his jeans frayed and cuffed, his T-shirt blowing in a hot breeze.
Marchers, he said, would be arriving from across the country in buses, trains and caravans. He predicted they would fill the park and swell into the streets. There were only weeks left to prepare. The sun was high and he was sweating. He pulled down his COVID mask and took a breath, disappearing into the shadows at the edge of the park and driving home for a few hours’ rest.
“I don’t feel there’s anything to lose,” Abudayyeh said about the upcoming protest in Chicago. “We’ve already dealt with political repression. We know the feds are here and will be crawling up and down Chicagoland.”
(Alex Garcia / For The Times)
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Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner has emerged as one of the party’s fastest-rising political figures, drawing national attention for his populist message and outsider image.
But as his profile has grown, so has scrutiny of his past conduct, with controversies ranging from sexually explicit messages and offensive social media posts to a Nazi-linked tattoo and campaign staff upheaval.
PLATNER CONTROVERSIES FUEL SPECULATION ABOUT LITTLE-KNOWN MAINE BALLOT REPLACEMENT PROVISION
In continued clean-up of those scandals, Platner came to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to huddle with party figures at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headquarters just one week before his primary election.
The Marine veteran and oyster farmer has defended himself against the criticism and retained the support of prominent Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Still, some have questioned whether the allegations could complicate Democrats’ efforts to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races.
Here’s a look at the major controversies that have engulfed Platner’s campaign.
Explicit text messages and sexting allegations
Senate candidate Graham Platner is under fire, but it was his wife Amy Gertner coming out with a controversial five-minute social media post by the campaign to denounce the ‘attacks’ while she did not deny the allegations of infidelity in a new marriage. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The most recent controversy surrounding Platner stems from reports that he exchanged sexually explicit messages with multiple women during his marriage, an issue that campaign aides were reportedly aware of as his Senate bid was taking shape.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, informed a campaign aide about the text exchanges shortly after he launched his Senate bid as staffers were assessing potential political liabilities.
According to the report, Gertner discovered the messages months after the couple married in 2024 and disclosed their existence before her husband held a campaign rally alongside progressive Sen. Sanders. The campaign told Politico that the aide viewed the matter as a private issue between the couple and did not raise concerns about it publicly.
SENATE CANDIDATE GRAHAM PLATNER SENT EXPLICIT TEXTS TO MULTIPLE WOMEN WHILE MARRIED, WIFE SAYS: REPORT
Platner’s campaign later confirmed the existence of the text exchanges to Politico.
He also told Fox News Digital in a statement: “Amy and I went through something hard — because of me. We did the work, and I’m grateful for her every hour of every day.”
“I’ve learned throughout this campaign is that people don’t care about gossip or headlines, they care that you’re fighting for their hospitals, their paycheck, their kids… Our opponents want politics to be empty of content and empty of actual change — and beating that is exactly what our movement is about,” he added.
In a statement to the Journal, Gertner criticized the disclosure of the information, saying she had shared “deeply personal details” about her marriage with someone she considered a friend, only to see those details become public.
She revealed that the two attended couple’s counseling, worked through the issues in their marriage and have since emerged as a stronger couple.
“I know who Graham is. I know the man I married and the husband he has been to me on the best and the worst days of my life,” Gertner said. “That hasn’t changed, and it won’t.”
Nazi-linked tattoo
Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine, points to a covered tattoo that was previously recognized as a Nazi symbol during an interview in Portland, Maine, on Oct. 22, 2025. (WGME via AP)
Platner’s campaign also faced intense scrutiny after it was revealed he once had a skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his chest closely resembling the “Totenkopf” symbol used by Hitler’s SS paramilitary forces.
The Maine Democrat said he got the tattoo during a “night of drinking” while on leave in Croatia in 2007 as a Marine and claimed he was entirely unaware of its meaning at the time.
In an Instagram video posted in May, Platner elaborated on the tattoo’s origins. He explained that he merely selected the design from a flash tattoo wall while “carousing” with fellow Marines in Split, Croatia.
“We thought it looked cool,” he downplayed.
Platner said he was later “appalled” to learn the image resembled a Nazi symbol, arguing that his life and career have been defined by opposition to fascism, racism and Nazism. He also noted that he was never questioned about the tattoo during his military service.
MAINE DEM SENATE HOPEFUL BACKED BY BERNIE SANDERS APOLOGIZES FOR NAZI-STYLE TATTOO, VOWS TO STAY IN RACE
Rather than undergo removal, Platner said he chose to cover the tattoo because tattoo removal services were not readily available near his rural Maine home.
“Going to a tattoo removal place is going to take a while,” he told The Associated Press. “I wanted this thing off my body.”
The symbol was ultimately covered with a tattoo featuring a Celtic knot and images of dogs, which Platner said were meant to honor his family pets.
Deleted Reddit posts reveal offensive comments
U.S. Senate candidate from Maine Graham Platner speaks during a campaign event on May 17, 2026, in Portland, Maine. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The keystone scrutiny Platner has faced during his bid stemmed from thousands of now-deleted Reddit posts that resurfaced after he launched his Senate campaign.
In posts first reported by CNN and Politico, Platner referred to himself as a “communist” and “socialist” and endorsed the slogan “all cops are b—–ds.”
In other posts, he argued that those who “expect to fight fascism without a good semi-automatic rifle, they ought to do some reading of history” and said that “an armed working class is a requirement for economic justice.”
DELETED POSTS URGING VIOLENCE HAUNT DEMOCRATIC SENATE HOPEFUL IN MAINE RACE
The posts under his since-retired username “P-hustle” were deleted before Platner announced his Democratic Senate bid in August.
The candidate has since addressed the posts multiple times, telling CNN and Politico that he was “f—ing around on the internet” during a period when he felt “lost and very disillusioned with our government who sent me overseas to watch my friends die.”
“I made dumb jokes and picked fights,” Platner said. “But of course I’m not a socialist. I’m a small business owner, a Marine Corps veteran, and a retired s—poster.”
In the posts Platner made crude comments about masturbating in port-a-potties and claimed a U.S. service member who took enemy fire in Afghanistan “didn’t deserve to live.”
GRAHAM PLATNER VOWS TO ‘COME AFTER’ BEZOS AS SENATE HOPEFUL ESCALATES BILLIONAIRE TAX FIGHT
The controversies have done little to erode Platner’s standing within the Democratic Party as he has continued to attract national attention and grassroots support in the Democratic primary bid to challenge Sen. Collins for her seat.
Since former Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills halted her campaign in April, much of the party establishment has consolidated behind Platner, and national Democrats have continued to support his candidacy despite the flurry of scandals.
The steady stream of allegations and past controversies has also drawn attention to a little-known provision in Maine election law that allows political parties to replace a nominee under certain circumstances after a primary election.
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Under state law, a candidate who wins a primary and subsequently withdraws by 5 p.m. on July 13 can be replaced by a nominee selected by party officials. Any replacement candidate must then be chosen by 5 p.m. on July 27.
There is currently no indication that Platner plans to withdraw from the race, and the Democratic hopeful has repeatedly vowed to continue his campaign. Still, the provision has drawn renewed interest as questions persist about whether additional revelations could complicate his candidacy.
Platner’s campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Politics
Commentary: Bass clears first hurdle, but if Pratt holds off Raman, the mayoral race could be a holy war
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass made what sounded like a victory speech Tuesday night.
Councilmember Nithya Raman made what sounded almost like a concession speech.
And former reality TV star Spencer Pratt relayed a message from the heavens.
“Well, obviously God wanted five more months of me exposing all the failures of our mayor, so it’s gonna be a fun ride,” Pratt said. “I hope she’s ready.”
Assuming Pratt holds on to one of the two spots in the Nov. 3 general election as the final votes are tallied in the next few days, the smart money will be on Bass, for reasons I’ll get into in a moment.
But the supreme being and patron of all pontiffs has to be considered a wild card. This is the first time, to my knowledge, that an incumbent mayor in the City of Angels would be running against a challenger whose campaign manager is God Almighty.
So here we go. We could be in for one of the more remarkable electoral adventures in city history, with a complete novice and MAGA conservative going up against a liberal career politician in a deep-blue city and state full of people who are tired of hearing excuses from Democrats. (If Raman ends up ousting Pratt, my apologies for jumping to conclusions. But it’s not my fault. The devil made me do it.)
If you intend to follow closely, as of course you should, maybe you can help me count the number of times Pratt plays the faith card. I went to St. Peter Martyr School and attended the church by the same name, and I don’t recall ever hearing a nun or a priest drop God’s name as often as Pratt does.
In fact, I just watched a clip of Pratt talking to Fox News TV host and Donald Trump disciple Kayleigh McEnany, and over the course of 1 minute and 52 seconds, he mentioned God or Jesus 10 times.
“Thankfully, I married an angel who was very connected with Jesus and has brought me to the light,” Pratt said of his wife and former reality TV co-star Heidi Montag. “It’s been very empowering to just pray and just be on his path and just say, ‘God, if you want me to save these animals, save these humans and protect my city, just keep putting me in the place where I can do that.’”
Is he running for mayor or cardinal?
Look, I totally respect your average true believer. But I’m not entirely comfortable with a mayor who might be sitting around City Hall waiting for signs and smoke signals rather than knowing what to do on his own.
God has a lot on his plate. He might be busy multiplying fishes and loaves so people don’t go hungry thanks to the president’s tariffs and warmongering. Is he going to rush to answer a prayer for guidance about underfunded parks or broken sidewalks in Los Angeles?
How did we get here, you ask?
Well, Pratt is an AI creation, in a way. A composite of sorts. You combine the forces of social media, political rebellion, second-rate celebrity obsession and the Peter Principle, and here’s a little Trump puppet walking around L.A. like he’s the chosen one.
Add to that the very real essence of his appeal to some voters:
Los Angeles has problems. Big problems that don’t get fixed quickly enough or at all, and Pratt represents the angry voter who wants to know why City Hall can’t do better and where all the money went. He’s absolutely right when he says we shouldn’t have people living on the streets, using drugs on the streets and dying on the streets.
But if Pratt is in the general election rather than Raman, we’re in for a national media circus rather than a summit on solutions. Raman is well-versed on matters of relevance and could have pushed back against Bass in substantive, detailed ways. On the other hand, as Pratt has fairly argued, Raman headed City Council’s homelessness committee, so isn’t she partly to blame for the failures she tried to pin on Bass?
As for Pratt’s policy chops, he has not responded to my offers of a get-together. Absent that, and given his careful avoidance of local reporters who know their stuff, I read his platform on his campaign website and I can tell you that while he touches on many of the right issues — public safety, fiscal integrity, homelessness — attention to detail and depth of knowledge are not God-given strengths.
Maybe Pratt can actually deliver on his promise of a “treatment-led recovery model that addresses mental illness and addiction as the primary drivers of chronic homelessness.” But that would require an act of God (which I suppose is possible given their relationship), because those matters are primarily under the direction of the county, not the city.
This is the main problem here. Bass was beatable, and could have been pushed by a serious challenger to do better.
In the last election, Rick Caruso gave her a scare. That was partly because he had some depth on the issues, he was a successful businessman and philanthropist, he had served on the police commission and the water and power board, he had built relationships across the city and, along with his family, he had poured time and millions of dollars into underserved communities.
In this election, it looks as though Bass could get lucky and face off against a guy who lost his house in the Palisades fire, saw a few homeless encampments through his car window, and decided he wanted to be mayor. Some might have questioned his hubris, but only before learning that he was on a mission from God.
If you’re keeping count, that’s nine mentions of God so far in this column.
One more for the tie, with an eye toward five more months of campaign fodder.
Thank you, God.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
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Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., suddenly found himself on the defensive at a budget hearing on Wednesday when, amid levying accusations of the Trump administration’s “corrupt” dealings, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent fired back by bringing Wyden’s son’s investments into the exchange.
“We would like to hear what Adam Wyden and Jeffrey Epstein talked about,” Bessent said, referring to unearthed emails drawing a connection between the senator’s son and the disgraced financier.
“Did your son and Jeffrey Epstein talk about pole dancing as he begged him for money?”
The moment continues the political fallout for the many names associated with Epstein that — despite not amounting to proof of wrongdoing — continue to prompt embarrassment and scandal at even the smallest mention.
TOP FIERY MOMENTS AS DEMOCRATS CLASH WITH TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT IN CHAOTIC HILL HEARINGS
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, left, pictured along Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore, right. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Epstein, a former financier, died while in prison on charges of sex trafficking minors in 2019, leaving behind questions of whether he facilitated illegal sexual encounters for his vast network of rich and powerful figures.
Amid public demands for transparency on the matter, the Department of Justice released troves of documents on Epstein late last year, unveiling a slew of new names with all manner of ties to the infamous figure ranging from purely innocuous to alarming.
Among them, emails surfaced indicating that Adam Wyden, Ron Wyden’s son, went to Epstein, hoping to gain his support for a business venture.
UNEARTHED EMAILS REVEAL DEM SENATOR’S SON WANTED EPSTEIN TO JOIN HIS FUND: ‘ENJOYED OUR CONVERSATION’
Sen. Ron Wyden leaves a Senate Democratic meeting at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 3, 2025, as the federal government shuts down after Congress and the White House failed to reach a funding deal. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“Jeffrey, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to meet with me. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and hope my passion and dedication for my business came through in the meeting. I live and breathe this business and take my returns, integrity and reputation quite seriously,” the younger Wyden said in an email in April 2016.
“I intensely appreciate like-minded individuals and would very much look forward to having you join us at the fund.”
The emails came after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida in 2008.
It’s unclear what the business venture discussed by Adam Wyden and Epstein may have been or what, specifically, had been discussed in their conversations.
Even so, Bessent reminded viewers that the younger Wyden had a history of investing in off-color markets at Wednesday’s hearing.
DEMOCRATS ARE HAMMERING REPUBLICANS ON EPSTEIN, BUT ONE SENATOR BRUSHED OFF THE ISSUE YEARS AGO
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent addresses a press conference in Rosenbad after trade talks between the U.S. and China concluded in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 29, 2025. (Magnus Lejhall/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Your son’s largest investment position was Rick’s Cabaret,” Bessent said, referring to a series of strip clubs.
Wyden, who has widely panned the Trump administration and its many officials for their own connections to Epstein, didn’t respond to Bessent’s jabs.
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