Senator Josh Hawley clashes with Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, son of Holocaust survivor, over antisemitism

The Independent

Josh Hawley clashes with Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, son of a Holocaust survivor, over antisemitism.C-SPAN

Transcript

00:00 May your conscience haunt your dreams until your last breath.

00:03 Palestine will be free one day.

00:05 F-Apartheid Israel and is any Israeli.

00:09 This is pretty extreme rhetoric, don't you think?

00:11 Senator, I do and I think there is a distinction between espousing or endorsing terrorist ideology

00:20 and speech that is odious that does not rise to that level.

00:27 Fair enough, this person works for you.

00:30 This is Nuja Ali, an employee of the Department of Homeland Security, who posted these comments

00:37 on October the 7th.

00:39 That's not all she posted.

00:41 She also posted this graphic.

00:44 Now this is a fake graphic, I want to be clear, but I think we understand it.

00:48 This is a paraglider, a Hamas paraglider, depicted here with a machine gun flying into

00:55 Israel.

00:56 She posted it under her online alias with the celebratory "Free Palestine."

01:02 Mr. Secretary, what's going on here?

01:07 Is this typical of people who work at DHS?

01:09 This is an asylum and immigration officer who is posting these frankly pro-genocidal

01:15 slogans and images on the day that Israelis are being slaughtered in their beds.

01:24 What have you done about this?

01:25 Four things I'd like to say to you.

01:28 Number one, your question to suggest that that is emblematic of the men and women of

01:35 the Department of Homeland Security is despicable.

01:38 I'm sorry, this person works for the Department of Homeland Security.

01:42 Have you fired her?

01:43 That was one of four answers.

01:46 Have you fired her?

01:48 Have you fired her?

01:49 Don't come to this hearing room when Israel has been invaded and Jewish students are barricaded

01:54 in libraries in this country and cannot be escorted out because they are threatened for

02:00 their lives.

02:01 You have employees who are celebrating genocide and you are saying it's despicable for me

02:05 to ask the question?

02:07 That individual has been placed on administrative leave.

02:10 So she's not been fired?

02:12 Number two.

02:13 Why has she not been fired?

02:15 Number two, the individual was hired in 2019.

02:18 Why has she not been fired?

02:19 Number three, I cannot speak to an ongoing personnel matter.

02:24 Why has this person not been fired?

02:26 Your answer is you can't speak to it?

02:28 This isn't sufficient to fire her?

02:29 I am not in a position to speak to an ongoing personnel matter.

02:34 Let me just point you to what else she posted on social media where she drew attention to

02:38 the fact that she is an immigration and asylum officer.

02:42 Hashtag immigrants, hashtag asylum seekers, hashtag Palestine, hashtag refugees welcome.

02:47 This is on her LinkedIn post where she has her professional affiliation posted.

02:53 So I think the American people deserve to know, has she admitted contrary to law, individuals

03:00 who should not be in this country or denied Jewish refugees whose genocide she's advocating

03:06 asylum that they deserve?

03:09 Same answer.

03:11 You're not going to, you're not going to tell us what this person's done.

03:13 You conducting review of her cases at least?

03:15 Senator, as I have said over and over again, I cannot speak to an ongoing personnel matter.

03:21 You said that you will Mon.

03:22 I can't believe that she would come to this committee knowing this, you know about this.

03:26 I've written to you about it.

03:27 You know all about it.

03:29 Number one, what I found despicable is the implication that this language tremendously

03:37 odious actually could be emblematic of the sentiments of the 260,000 men and women of

03:46 the Department of Homeland Security.

03:48 Number one.

03:49 Number two, uh, Senator Hawley takes a adversarial approach to me in this question and perhaps

03:58 he doesn't know my own background.

04:02 Perhaps he does not know that I am the child of a Holocaust survivor.

04:06 Perhaps he does not know that my mother lost almost all her family at the hands of the

04:13 Nazis.

04:14 And so I find his adversarial tone to be entirely misplaced.

04:20 I find it to be disrespectful of me and my heritage and I do not expect an apology, but

04:27 I did want to say what I just articulated.

04:30 Thank you.

04:31 Mr. Chairman, can I just response since he has referenced me personally?

04:34 Senator, we need to move on.

04:35 Senator Romney, you're recognized for your questions.

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