The X/Twitter account of beloved children’s show icon Elmo was hacked in the early hours of Sunday morning. In now-deleted tweets, the hacker made a number of antisemitic posts, including “all Jews should die,” “Jews control the world and need to be exterminated,” and “Donald Trump is Netanyahu’s puppet.”
“Elmo’s X account was compromised today by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts. We are working to restore full control of the account,” a Sesame Workshop spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The Epstein files
The hacker’s post also made frequent reference to the Epstein files, a current source of anger for many conspiracy theorists in US President Donald Trump’s base, according to NBC News.
“For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday. “Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden administration.”
The renewed interest in the Epstein files also came after X/Twitter CEO and former ally to Trump, Elon Musk, publicly accused Trump of being in the files.
Accusing Trump of being a “child f****er,” the hacker demanded that the president “release the files.”
Trump said on Sunday he spoke to deputy FBI director Dan Bongino to try to calm an uproar over how the Justice Department handled the probe into the death of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged clientele.
Bongino represents a part of Trump's "Make America Great Again" base of support that has long been suspicious of Epstein, whose 2019 death in federal custody has been ruled a suicide.
In a joint memo released on Monday, the FBI and Justice Department said there was no evidence to support a number of long-held conspiracy theories about Epstein's death in federal custody in 2019 and his alleged clientele.
Expectations for key revelations in his case grew when, in February, Fox News asked Attorney General Pam Bondi whether the Justice Department would be releasing Epstein's client list, and she said, "It's sitting on my desk right now to review."
On Tuesday at the White House, Bondi walked that comment back, telling reporters that she was referring to the entire Epstein "file" along with other files pertaining to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. "That's what I meant by that," she said.
Conservative influencers, from Laura Loomer to Musk, have criticized Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel for their findings, which came months after Bondi pledged to reveal major revelations about Epstein, including "a lot of names" and "a lot of flight logs."
Sesame Street releases statement on hack
The official Sesame Street account released a statement on Tuesday saying that Elmo's X account was "briefly hacked by an outside party."
"We strongly condemn the abhorrent antisemitic and racist content, and the account has since been secured," they wrote. "These posts in no way reflect the values of Sesame Workshop or Sesame Street, and no one at the organization was involved."
Memes follow Elmo hack
With roughly 8 million households tuning in to watch Sesame Street each week, according to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Elmo has become a name known both to parents and in pop culture, where he has inspired memes.
Joel Berry, the managing editor of the satirical paper The Babylon Bee, joked that he was “Looking forward to Tucker’s upcoming interview with Elmo.”
A right-wing podcaster, Tucker Carlson has frequently hosted guests with openly antisemitic positions.
Carlson insinuated that Jeffrey Epstein was working for Israeli intelligence services in a Friday address at a Turning Point USA event.
Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli even accused Carlson last year of “ becoming the leading platform for fringe Holocaust deniers, conspiracy theorists, and blood libel enthusiasts…”
Other prominent X accounts joked that the account had meant death to all Zionists, not Jews, and that Elmo had been hired as a UN Special Rapporteur - a reference to United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, who has faced frequent accusations of antisemitism.
Rep. Ritchie Torres also commented on the situation, writing on X: "Antisemitism is unsettlingly ubiquitous on social media.
"Anyone who denies its pernicious and pervasive presence—on digital platforms and in society at large—is willfully blind to a reality staring us all in the face."