Fox News host Tomi Lahren has derided the beloved children’s YouTube personality Ms. Rachel as “creepy” and called her political views “problematic” after she appeared with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Ms. Rachel, real-name Rachel Griffin-Accurso, joined the mayor at a pre-kindergarten in Lower Manhattan Friday, where the duo sang “The Wheels on the Bus” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It” to an audience of enraptured toddlers to promote Mamdani’s policy of free childcare for two-year-olds.
While the educator was affectionately described as “a rock star in the toddler world” in ABC7’s coverage of the event, the panellists on Fox’s The Big Weekend Show were less kind.
Lahren, speaking above an on-screen chyron labelled “Indoctrinating the Youth,” said of Ms. Rachel: “It creeps me out when you have adults that dress like children and behave that way.
“If you are a parent that has your children watching this, maybe second-guess for reasons of being creepy, and her political leanings – a little problematic.”
Co-host Guy Benson chimed in: “She is absolutely not on in our house at all – at all – and it’s not just because she’s annoying, which, I find it all very grating and cloying.
“But when she also made her whole personality about hating the Jewish state and basically apologizing for Hamas and promoting all their propaganda, that was a definite hard no redline in my household.”
“Well, now we know why Mamdani likes her,” fellow contributor Nicole Saphier sneered.
“Right! It’s sort of on-brand, isn’t it, this alliance?” Benson replied.
The hosts were referring to Ms Rachel issuing an emotional appeal on Instagram last May to help Palestinian children living in Gaza, responding to a United Nations official who had warned that 14,000 babies could starve to death within days if Israel did not end its blockade of the territory.
The educator, who has 18 million subscribers on YouTube, held up a picture of an emaciated infant and called on world leaders to intervene to save the lives of children in the warzone.
Her gesture saw her included on a list of nominees for “Antisemite of the Year” in December by the pro-Israel group StopAntisemitism, which was criticized for choosing her over avowed white supremacists.
Continuing the critique on Fox, Sapier declared: “I do not know who Ms. Rachel is. My kids are old enough, but she seems annoying.
“And I don’t know that she is antisemitic, but if she’s sitting next to Mamdani and they’re doing little hand gestures together – since he’s antisemitic, I would assume she is as well, because misery loves company.”
The mayor has also spoken up for Palestinians and was routinely accused of antisemitism by rival Andrew Cuomo during last year’s race for City Hall, which he denied, accusing the former governor in return of resorting to smears as his chances of winning became ever more remote.
Saphier was ultimately forced to concede that she was sympathetic to Mamdani’s attempt to help out working parents because childcare “is a struggle.”
“You know, I was a single mom for a while when I was young,” she said. “And it’s very expensive and very hard. A lot of times, adults have to stop working to pay for childcare.
“Maybe it will get more parents in the workforce, but I bet you not all go to the workforce because I think a lot of people don’t like working.”
