Mayor Daniel Lurie is not particularly helping San Francisco’s image at the moment, as he posted a false claim that SF protesters were chanting “Tax the Jews” at a Wednesday event, even though video from the scene debunks the claim.

There’s an old often misattributed but very clever quote that "A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can put on its pants,” which is particularly true in the era of Twitter. Mayor Daniel Lurie gave San Francisco an unfortunate taste of that maxim on Wednesday afternoon, and he’s left the lie up lingering, with a false claim that makes our city look pretty damn bad.

What we see in Lurie’s tweet above looks pretty reprehensible. “At an event this afternoon, a group of individuals that were chanting ‘tax the rich’ began to shout ‘tax the Jews,’" Lurie claimed on Twitter Wednesday afternoon. While video has since come forward debunking this claim, it was retweeted hundreds of times, including by the likes of Governor Gavin Newsom, Tom Steyer, Rep. Eric Swalwell, Reps. Ro Khanna, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, state Senator Scott Wiener and CNN analyst David Axelrod.

Meanwhile, the New York Post’s new right-wing propaganda machine the California Post is blaring “Vile antisemitic chant breaks out at San Francisco press conference.”  The international Jewish media is following suit.

Except it’s not true. Mission Local has the breakdown that Lurie’s claim, presented without any evidence, shows that no "group of individuals” ever made such a chant. Instead, a random, solitary woman known for her mentally unstable outbursts, who was not associated with some assembled protesters outside the event, yelled “Tax the Israel!" and "Tax the Jews” alongside the protesters for several moments before she was forced to move along.

This is verified in the video above from the SF Standard’s Gabe Grechsler. To set the scene, Lurie is attending a press conference announcing legislation that would slash taxes on real estate development. As such, members of the SF Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are there chanting “Tax the Rich," which is hardly an uncommon or anti-Semitic chant.

The crazy lady comes along and briefly joins in with “Tax the Jews.”

“Then two minutes in, she starts saying weird shit,” DSA SF protester Matthew Pancia (who is Jewish) told Mission Local. “She started saying ‘Tax Israel,’ ‘Tax the Jews,’ and immediately I was like ‘No, no, no, not that one, don’t say that — I’m a Jew, I don’t think you should say that.’”

According to Pancia, a construction worker told him, “We know her, this lady comes out and just yells shit at us.”

Further video taken of the same woman shows she kept up on her anti-Semitic rant.

It is true that Lurie, his podium, and the assembled media and crowd watching the speech were separated from the DSA protesters by a fence and could not see each other. So of course they would have different perspectives on all this. But Lurie has now tarred his own city with a reputational stamp of anti-Semitism, despite video proof that the claim is inaccurate.

It may feel like good revenge on SF DSA for disrupting his press event, but by extension, this reflects poorly on all of San Francisco as the smear remains out there.  

So when Lurie records his next "Let's go, San Francisco” social media video, remember that his desire to score political points against some small-bore, ragtag opponents may be one thing that’s holding us back, if Lurie is willing to let the city suffer reputational damage over very minor political disputes.

Related: Newsom and Lurie Distance Themselves From Campaign Against California Billionaire Tax [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 21: San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie looks on during a Domestic Violence Awareness Month rally on October 21, 2025 in San Francisco, California. Mayor Lurie joined local leaders on the steps of San Francisco City Hall for a rally to observe Domestic Violence Awareness Month. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)