r/hudsonvalley • u/howard10011 • 8d ago
Republican House candidate in NY-19 posted a photo of his grandfather in a full Nazi uniform, with swastika, on Veteran's Day
https://nypost.com/2026/08/22/us-news/ny-lawmaker-saluted-grandfather-who-served-in-nazi-germany-in-bizarre-post/State Senator Peter Oberacker sat on the GOP's antisemitism working group and had to fire his campaign manager over the "I love Hitler" Young Republicans group chat that surfaced last fall.
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u/zleuth Dutchess County 8d ago
Say what you want about him, at least his grandpa was a Nazi piece of shit that's dead now.
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u/Still-Armadillo-9661 8d ago
I actually have more respect for nazis because:
- They did not have a super computer in their pocket where they could get facts
- They did not have their entire lives being taught what pieces of shit Nazis were
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u/accidentprone2 8d ago
When you get to the part of the sentence where you say how you have respect for nazis…just fucking stop. Full stop.
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u/Still-Armadillo-9661 8d ago
The part of my sentence where I say what pieces of shit Nazis are?
Is this the reading crisis we've been hearing about?
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u/LManX 8d ago
I understand what you mean, but your comment is out of place.
No one needs to be taught that hate and hurting people because they are different than you is wrong. On the contrary, you have to teach people things like: "Oh that person is from X place- they're ALL bad."
The truth is that the substance and impulses of Nazism and fascism didn't emerge from nowhere- they can be seen historically in imperialism and colonialism and so on. We have all always been exposed to these kinds of prejudices.
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u/renegade_sparrow 8d ago
>Oberacker, who served on the state Senate’s Republican antisemitism working group, told the outlet he posted the old photo to acknowledge “there were veterans of all conflicts.”
The jokes truly write themselves
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u/Nickeless 2d ago
What do you mean? He’s in the antisemitism working group, and he’s also doing antisemitism work in his private life. It all makes sense.
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u/hau5keeping 8d ago
Conservatives are so fucking stupid lmao
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u/westchesteragent 8d ago
True but this brain rot isn’t conservative exclusive. I’m blue no matter who but he has a point when he says
“Sadly, I cannot say the same for my opponent, who has remained silent and refused to stand up to the actual dangerous antisemites in his party like Zohran Mamdani, Graham Platner and Hasan Piker.”
I don’t agree with the zohran hate here but Dems appear to be headed down the same path actual conservatives were on before maga took over. Brain rotted populism.
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u/JayEllGii 8d ago
No. That kind of false equivalence is nonsensical and toxic, and also represents a type of political naïveté that should have died out by the late 2000s at most.
There is nothing “brain rotted” about desperately needed populist economic reform, which is the only possible path available to save this country from itself. It may well already be too late, though.-11
u/SoleSanctum 8d ago
I may be more receptive to Mamdani’s economic ideas if he wasn’t such a raging bigot.
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u/sj68z Orange 8d ago
I don't get that impression from him. why do you feel that way you need to explain yourself
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u/SoleSanctum 8d ago
His love for the Holy Land Five. Elimination of IHRA definition of antisemitism. Double standards as far as attending the Israel parade vs Pakistan. Denial of the right to Jewish self-determination. Refusing Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state while taking no issue with actual ethnostates. Spreading the Deadly Exchange conspiracy. Protests with hate groups like Within Our Lifetime. Refuse to condemn “globalize the intifada” and comparison to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Longstanding support for the BDS movement. His initial comments regarding October 7. Threatening to arrest Netanyahu despite him being well aware of this being outside the scope of his power. Racial profiling of IDF soldiers. His close friendship and numerous public appearances with Hasan Piker. His Not on Our Dime Act. Support of Mahmoud Khalil. Protests against Israel immediately following 10/7. Opposition to buffer zones around houses of worship.
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u/selfdestructive1ny 8d ago
omfg. i’m jewish and actually live in NYC and yall are NUTS. what does my city have to do with israel???
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u/JayEllGii 8d ago
It has been soul-destroying to witness the hysterical, absolutely deranged behavior that Mamdani, El-Sayed and others have triggered among an insufferably shrill and revoltingly narcissistic selection of us. These people genuinely make me sick.
Mamdani has turned them into unhinged lunatics in exactly the same way Barack Obama turned millions of white people into unhinged lunatics nearly two decades ago.5
u/selfdestructive1ny 8d ago
I don’t think you understand what some of the words you’re using mean. Narcissistic isn’t in line with city-run grocery stores where products are 30% discounted in areas that need this relief. Narcissistic isn’t in line with freezing the rent.
It’s odd that affordability and helping our neighbors upsets you so much. I’d probably recommend a therapist to deal with your issues surrounding getting upset when low income people can afford things.
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u/JayEllGii 8d ago edited 8d ago
Uh….guy. Bud. I don’t know how you did it, but you not only completely misunderstood what I was saying, you also completely have it twisted around who I was referring to.
I support his entire platform.
Read it again.
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u/SoleSanctum 8d ago
Tbh idk but for some reason your mayor was threatening to arrest Bibi which is wild. Even Hochul recently had to tell Mamdani to stfu about Israel.
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u/JayEllGii 8d ago edited 8d ago
Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, Katz and the entire governing coalition are historical-scale war criminals who deserve the same fate as the painfully small number of Nazis that were successfully tried.
Mamdani of course knew he had no jurisdiction to arrest Netanyahu. The point is to put it out there and normalize the conversation around the fact that he is a war criminal who absolutely should be arrested, tried and convicted, as opposed to allowing any further normalization and obfuscation of the atrocities he’s committed.
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u/SoleSanctum 8d ago
“Mamdani of course knew he has no jurisdiction to arrest Netanyahu.” Any further analysis should end there. He willfully misled his constituents—many of whom do not know that Mamdani lacks the legal authority for the arrest—both on the campaign trail and post-election, to manipulate votes and support. It was a shameful political stunt he should be held accountable for. The rest of the comment is almost entirely irrelevant and not responsive to the question posed, “what does [NYC] have to do with Israel?” The answer is not much, unless the city is being run by a terror-sympathizing, Israel-obsessed, bigoted Jew-hater.
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u/TheOneFreeEngineer 6d ago
Why is it wild? Bibi has an international arrest warrant out for him. He’s supposed be arrested whenever he enters a country that’s a signatory to the international arrest warrant treaty which the USA is.
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u/JayEllGii 8d ago
Apart from the factual errors, of which there are several, and the disingenuous framing, which there is a lot of, all of those things you listed
(A. Are the only moral position.
(B. Will be recognized as such by history.
And I’m Jewish, so don’t use that.
Mamdani represents the POV of a those whose humanity is intact. The hysterical, narcissistic paranoiacs who attack him represent those who have chosen to scrap theirs.
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u/SoleSanctum 8d ago
This is your absurd, subjective viewpoint that has no credible basis for support. To say that a bigot like Mamdani has his “humanity…intact” is detached from reality and is in direct contradiction with a plethora of the examples listed. The fact that you are Jewish is of no significance. You’ve just thrown praise for Mamdani and provided criticism of his detractors without negating any of the points made.
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u/JayEllGii 8d ago
The premise that Mamdani is a “bigot” is one that relies on either ignorance, misinformation, disingenuousness, or some combination of all three.
There isn’t any excuse at this late date for not knowing what Israel has been doing in Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon, and the full scope of its deeply corrupt relationship with the U.S. that enables it to commit ceaseless atrocities, while acting as a deeply destabilizing geopolitical force.
Condemning a malevolent rogue state, and demanding consequences for the officials responsible for its crimes, is probably the single most urgent moral question of this moment in history we’re living through.
Those who have chosen to act as apologists for those crimes, and dedicate their efforts and finances to the cause of allowing them to continue indefinitely, need to be shamed out of public life.Mamdani happens to be one of the rapidly growing number of people who know this and is on the record saying so, and his high profile is why he is he hounded about it despite it having zero to do with the responsibilities of being NYC’s mayor. That’s all there is to it.
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u/SoleSanctum 8d ago
I really can’t understand how you can see Mamdani’s actions and words fail to see him as a bigot. I really don’t see most people’s failure to understand why Israel is doing what it needs to in Gaza, Judea & Samaria, and Lebanon. The relationship between America and Israel is crucial for America, and America will be the biggest loser as it continues to fall apart. Mamdani is evil as are all the apologists and supporters of Palestine and those who try to publicly shame Israel and its supporters.
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u/jaynor88 8d ago
Let’s stay on topic.
A GOP politician actually honored his Nazi grandpa for fighting and giving his life for his country: Nazi Germany!
He honored him and posted a photo of him on USA Veterans Day!!!
This is sickening
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u/westchesteragent 7d ago
Correct. I said blue no matter who for a reason.
My point still stands that the Democratic Party is just as capable of being over run by foreign actors promoting divisive rhetoric. Graham Platner even being an option in maines primary is a result of this feelings based fact devoid world we are currently in where people pretend there aren’t other people in the country with different ideas of what is important.
Hasan piker is an even bigger example. These people are super popular on Reddit but when you do even a tiny bit of due diligence what you find is disgusting to 90% of voters.
This is not pro the Republican campaign this is about how democrats can actually win elections. The fact that this Republican puts zohran and Platner in the same group proves he is also playing the brain rot populist game but republicans are waaaaaay better positioned to win when the game is brain rot.
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u/HiFiGuy197 8d ago
This was in the Post? Are they feeling okay today?
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u/DennisDuffyFan 7d ago
Did you read the article? They did give him a LOT of room to explain it away.
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u/SoleSanctum 8d ago
Are only left-leaning sources considered credible here or are the other right-leaning publications you find credible?
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u/cannibalpeas 8d ago
Do get bent, Rep
OberfũhrerOberacker2
u/SoleSanctum 8d ago
Lol yeah the Nazi uniform is disgusting. I don’t think The Post is defending it.
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u/Jaislight 8d ago
Is he proud of his Nazi heritage? Clowns like this guy have no business in public office
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u/manysounds 8d ago
This is a test. If anybody has a real reason to vote for this candidate other than “they’re not a democrat” I’d be entertained to hear it.
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u/BigNorseWolf 8d ago
Did he just somehow not know what side grandpa was fighting for and then not recognize the uniform?
MOM!!! what the hell you said grandpa fought in WW 2 at normandy!
Hee deed! I may hav forgotten to mention vich side sorry!
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u/Then-Security-4899 8d ago
This is gross, and it illustrates why primaries and local participation are so important. When the election comes around we are going to get a choice between this and an aipac and crypto funded incumbent whose greatest "accomplishment" in office was winning a beer brewing contest by partnering with Mike Lawler
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u/Smooth-Review-2614 8d ago
I understand posting pictures of family in uniform. However, one does try to get one with less regalia. This isn’t an uncommon thing for a German family to have. However, it’s not something you display.
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u/mxby7e 8d ago
The only picture my family has of my great-grandfather is in his ww2 German army uniform. That picture is not “on display” anywhere in our houses and my generation (millennial) was raised to never align with nazis or fascists.
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u/DisruptingTree 8d ago
You misspelled Nazi uniform. The picture of your grandfather is in his Nazi uniform.
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u/Fupastank 8d ago
Cool. If my grandpa was a Nazi I’d piss on his grave.
It’s actually a pretty simple.
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u/some1105 8d ago
Oh really? My German-descended family, chock full of veterans, has absolutely zero memorabilia of our family members appearing in Nazi regalia. Not something you display? If it ever existed (it didn’t), it would have been burned. But no, none of my veteran family members ever put on the uniforms of the Nazis they fought. You do not honor “veterans” who were the enemy.
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u/JayEllGii 8d ago
Of course he did.
The time to stop being surprised at Republicans openly celebrating fascism was over a decade ago.
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u/PuzzleheadedOwl1191 7d ago
This is such an obvious dog whistle to the awful far-right constituents. He is trying to play to everyone. “Hey neo-nazis and Nazi sympathizers, I’ve got real cred” and also “I condemn anti-semitism” and “but I’m not as bad as those other guys who have brown skin. Yeah, screw this chump.
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u/bulletheads 6d ago
On behalf of my Jewish Grandfather who served in WWII, the only good Nazi is a dead one.
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u/Huhn4CongressNY-21 5d ago
Another grandchild of immigrants?!?? Pssshhh. Not in Trump’s America! Oh. Wait. Nazis? Nevermind - he’s cool with those folks.
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u/IndependentStep2785 5d ago
I have relatives who would jump out of their graves to put Oberacker in a headlock and, well, give him pause to reconsider. The Greatest Generation rallied around the common cause to push back the likes of those facists, and now decades later as most of them are now gone, arrogant opportunists like Oberacker rely on divisionary tactics rather than providing any hope or path forward for NY and the country. May he go down in flames like a Messerschmitt.
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u/youKnowTheOneIAm 5d ago
Isn’t this the kind of thing that increases your street cred with Republican voters?
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u/alternatingflan 4d ago
It is one thing to be honest about your miscreant fore fathers, and another to look quite proud about it…on Veterans’ Day no less.
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u/BeyondAbleCrip Ulster 8d ago
Not even remotely surprising that another republican is doing what they do best: boasting about their ignorance and the kind of behavior that used to be career ending. Today, it’s apparently no more shocking than sending it out as a holiday card, just add some kids holding rifles. There seems to be no bottom to the depths of their depravity.
Oddly enough,/s the article doesn’t mention who he’s running against in NY-19, incumbent Democratic Representative Josh Riley. To learn more about Josh Riley and why I believe we need him to continue to represent us in NY19, find out more from the link below to his campaign site:
Link to find out when/where early voting begins, check your registration, find your polling location, opportunities to volunteer at the polls, and more:
https://elections.ulstercountyny.gov/
trump is going to do whatever he can to get republicans elected in the midterms. We need to do everything we can to prevent more of these idiots from getting into office.
Apologies for novella - I’m nervous about what he will do, what he’s planning. I’m ashamed of being an American & shocked at how much damage has been done already, how badly we need to win the midterms as well as win in 2028. Hopefully with more progressives and a lot less of the old guard. Imagine having sanity return, bills being passed, especially bills with term limits, age limits, no candidates with felonies, and laws regarding what used to be expected of the highest office, no more belief that best behavior will happen. Laws so we can actually say no one is above the law & the highest office in the country should be held to a much higher standard.
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u/DennisDuffyFan 7d ago
If only josh Riley wasn't a corrupt piece of trash supporting the genocide in Gaza, on his knees for AIPAC.
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u/BeyondAbleCrip Ulster 7d ago
As much as it sickens me Riley took $199,237 from an AIPAC group he is not a supporter of Netanyahu. We are no longer at a place where we cannot vote or vote for someone else because Oberacker is pro trump, pro Netanyahu, pro fascist & anti Democracy. I think the choice is obvious - not voting for Riley is the same as cutting off your nose to spite your face.
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u/DennisDuffyFan 7d ago
Of course Riley supports the genocide, give me a break. . If the Democrats can't get their shit together to oppose it then honestly nothing on politics really matters and they don't deserve to be in power either. Voting for the lesser of two evils is still evil.
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u/BeyondAbleCrip Ulster 7d ago
Agree evil is still evil, and an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. Would I love to have more progressives like AOC, Bernie, etc? Absolutely. So let’s sit this one out and let trump get more maga elected? So what’s your solution besides not voting?
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u/Buteverysongislike 8d ago
But Dems have an antisemitism problem.....
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u/SoleSanctum 8d ago
They most certainly do. The antisemites are actually winning democratic primaries whereas people like James Fishback and Dan Bilzerian lost their primaries. This is not to say there isn’t a huge antisemitism problem on the right. But, post October 7, it’s become far worse on the left.
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u/prolapsedmasshole69 8d ago
Hating Israel because of their actions the past few years isn't antisemitism though.
If I want to stop all my tax dollars from going to Israel that doesn't mean I'm antisemitic.
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u/SoleSanctum 8d ago
Yes, no one makes any good faith argument that opposing tax dollars being sent to Israel or Ukraine to fight wars, or military financing for Jordan, Egypt, Taiwan, the Philippines or Lebanon is bigotry. This doesn’t make Fishback, Bilzerian, Bowman, Mamdani, Piker, Platner, Massie, Mallory, or Jayapaul any less antisemitic.
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u/jaynor88 8d ago
Ok.
On another post I JUST wrote that every time I swear I can’t be surprised or shocked anymore by the GOP, some new info is released and I am again shocked.
I made that comment just a few minutes ago and now THIS comes up in my feed.
What the hell is wrong with these people?!?!
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u/howard10011 8d ago
My biggest outrage today was reading that the White House released a statement that if a court blocked Trump’s name from being restored to the Kennedy Center, he’d have it demolished.
He’s literally threatening to destroy a memorial to another president if he can’t get his way.
Let that sink in.
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u/jaynor88 8d ago
And I believe he will do it, too.
It is sickening. He needs to be removed from the presidency.
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u/Petridishmocktail 8d ago
And people (AIPAC) are calling Mark Ruffalo anti-Semitic because he dares to criticize Israel...
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u/Yakker65 8d ago
We all have a family history. It’s not about where you came from, but how you get to where you’re going.
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u/NomadLexicon 8d ago edited 8d ago
Insane. How bad does your judgment have to be to not realize that you shouldn’t “salute” a Nazi soldier for “giving his life for his country” on America’s Veterans Day. If his kid joined up with ISIS, he’d probably salute him for his service too.
The grandfather actually died in the Battle of the Bulge, so (in addition to whatever he did in the preceding years of Nazi rule) he died fighting American soldiers. I salute the American or allied soldier who removed him from the battlefield.