Activist Disrupts Hakeem Jeffries CCNY Appearance

HARLEM: Feb. 22, 2023

Jose Vega, an activist and former Hunter College student, deliberately disrupted a talk by Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries at The City College of New York’s Great Hall. In a Zoom interview after the event Vega said, “I was totally ready to disrupt Hakeem Jeffries.” It was the latest in a series of confrontations Vega has staged with national politicians in New York.

The lecture started out routinely. Jeffries, who represents a Brooklyn district, and Dean Andrew Rich of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership sat in throne-like chairs on the Great Hall’s stage. Congressman Jeffries spoke about his career and Dean Rich asked questions that led him to talk about his optimism for America’s future and inspiring students to run for office. 

A question and answer session followed, and that’s when Vega pounced. The second person to take the microphone, his question hinged on an article by journalist Seymour Hersh arguing that the unsolved bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, built to export natural gas from Russia to Germany, was an act of war.  “If it was proven that the United States bombed the Nord Stream pipeline, as asserted by Seymour Hersh and his article, will you call for the United States to acknowledge and admit that that was an act of War against Germany and Russia?” Vega asked.

“Thank you for the question,” Jeffries responded. “I got no information to suggest that the United States had any involvement in bombing the Nord Stream pipeline.” 

Before he could continue Vega interrupted and began shouting. Security took the mic away, but Vega continued to yell while moving closer to the stage. “We committed an act of war. What are you doing to respond to that? We have to hold Biden accountable,” he shouted.  

CCNY Public Safety officers took his arm, and Vega yelled at Jeffries, “You goddamn airhead, you’re going to kill us all.” After he shouted his questions and refused to stop, he was led out of the Great Hall and released on Convent Avenue. The others who were with him also stood up to challenge Jeffries, shouting questions and demanding answers. They were also led out of the building.

“I don’t go out to yell at these people. If I can ask them a question, I will at the mic,” Vega said later. 

Vega describes himself as a La Rouche activist, a follower of the late Lyndon LaRouche who advocated for individual rights limited government, and according to the New York Times, Politico and others journalists who followed his career, promoted a variety of conspiracy theories. Vega is also a supporter of  U.S. Senate candidate Diane Sare, running as an Independent, as were others who joined him in the Great Hall. “We had [the] Bronx’s Green Party, Voters Coalition, the No to NATO group, and Rachel George, who was there, is just an ordinary constituent of Hakeem Jeffries,” Vega explained in the Zoom interview.  He said he learned about the Stanley Feingold Lecture, where Jeffries spoke, from an Evite invitation sent out to students, faculty, and alumni. 

During the Zoom interview, Vega said that Jeffries avoided his question and that he didn’t appreciate the microphone being cut off. “So of course, I can’t let him get away with that,” he said. “My interest here is truth. I’m not a Democrat, not a Republican. I just want to make sure that justice is done, and that the people who committed this heinous act of war are held accountable.”

This was not his first run-in with a politician. Vega and associates post their confrontations and opinions of opposing politicians on social media platforms like Twitter.

He gained notoriety when he challenged New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a town hall meeting in the Bronx in October 2022. As she was speaking an associate of Vega interrupted, screaming “Congresswoman, none of this matters unless there’s a nuclear war, which you voted to send arms and weapons to Ukraine.” Vega later chimed in saying, “He’s telling the right truth. You have done nothing … I believed in you and you became the very thing you sought to fight against.”

Vega continued, “You are the establishment. You are the reason why everybody will end up in a nuclear war unless you choose to stand up right now and denounce the Democratic Party.”

In August 2022 Senator Kristen Gillibrand held a town hall meeting in Harlem, Vega attended the meeting and questioned Gillibrand’s voting decisions and cited the Center for Countering Disinformation claim that support for the war could put Americans on a so-called “hit list.”  “There are people right now who are critical of foreign policy who are at risk of dying because they disagree with this war and they disagree with this funding,” Vega said. 

She denied that she had any recollection of the list but reiterated what she did approve and vote for. “What’s the list? I don’t know about this,” Gillibrand responded.”

“I’ll tell you what I voted for and tell me how it’s related. I voted for three things in Ukraine: one,  military assistance like food and water. Two: the ability to get people out of Ukraine and to safer countries. And three: military equipment and the training of the Ukrainian fighters by the US military.” She went on: “That’s the three things we funded. I don’t know anything about your list.”

Diane Sare, the U.S. Senate candidate Vega supports also disrupted a town hall meeting with Senator Gillibrand on Staten Island in October 2022. She too challenged Senator Gillibrand’s support for the Ukraine war. 

At the end of our Zoom interview, Vega smiled and said, “I’m just a guy, an American citizen. It’s my First Amendment right to speak out against the politicians when you see injustice.”