Jeff Van Drew Makes Impassioned Off-The-Cuff Speech Decrying Antisemitism At U.S. Universities

Forbes Breaking News

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing last month, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) spoke about how the fight against antisemitism needs to be non-partisan.

Transcript

00:00with some of what you said, but I'm going to yield some time to myself and then Mr. Schmidl,

00:06actually you'll come in the next round, but I wanted to address some of those things.

00:11So I've really attempted to do this hearing in as non-partisan a way as I possibly can.

00:19And I would agree with Mr. Moskowitz that there is some fault on the right. There's no question.

00:24We have some extreme right wing. And I'm conservative. I'm a very conservative person.

00:31But there's no room for this on any side. But some of the examples that are given of how this

00:38administration is anti-Semitic or done the wrong thing by Jews, in general, I don't buy that. I

00:45really don't. Let me be clear. Some of the government-funded agencies were promoting

00:53anti-Semitic, anti-equality. I don't use equity. I use equality proposals. Let me be clear. Many

01:02universities, Ms. Cooper, you and I have spoken about it. I mean, my university, I graduated

01:08undergraduate. I went to dental school after, but undergraduate. I'm just pouring out my heart

01:13here. I don't have this all written down. I went to Rutgers University. I'm proud of Rutgers. It's a

01:17good school. It's a good public school. Some of the things that are said and are going on, some of

01:24the professors that are tenured, you've got to be kidding me. So I would say the same thing to my

01:31friends on the left, on the Democrat side, whatever you want to say. Don't tell me that you don't see

01:38that, because if you don't, then your eyes are closed. We have a real problem. Want to talk about

01:43a real problem? We have a real problem in our universities. We've got a real problem in our

01:47colleges. We've got a real problem with what we're teaching young kids. There is a desire to change

01:53the fabric and structure of the United States of America, and this is one of the number of ways they

01:59want to go about it. Our health care system, I think it was Mr. Marcus, I'm not sure, Mr. Schneider

02:04mentioned, even our health care system doesn't really exhibit equality and has gone after Jews.

02:11Some of the DEI policies weren't DEI policies for everyone, and I don't even like the policies to

02:18begin with. Equality for everyone, absolutely. Opportunity for everyone, but some of them were

02:23inherently anti-Jewish. Corporation policies they were actually promoting were anti-Jew, anti-Jewish,

02:33anti-Semitic. Let's tell the truth. It's tell-the-truth time. Media policies, I mean,

02:40I notice this all the time. I'm sorry, and I'm not trying to be partisan, damn it. I just see it.

02:45I see the coverage of things. I see when I'm at a meeting, and I understand you should cover both.

02:50You should cover the right. You should cover the left. Universities should cover everything,

02:54but allowing hate and venom and a call to violence, some of these young people are influenced by that,

03:02and the most ironic part of it all is in these universities and colleges. The very people who are

03:09doing the anti-Jewish propaganda would never be anti-United States government and recommending,

03:18again, it's their right to speak out, but to do in a way that encourages violence and pain and hurt

03:24is wrong. And my God, if they weren't in any of these countries that they're promoting,

03:30some of these countries, women can't drive. Some of these countries, women can't show their face.

03:35Some of these countries, if you're gay, you'll be killed. Let's tell the damn truth.

03:40Since Mr. Moskowitz wants to tell the truth, and I know he does, and I respect him,

03:45but let's tell the truth on this.

03:47Would the gentleman yield for a minute?

03:49In a second. And let's be also clear, we're trying to, and I get you don't like President

03:55Trump. I get it. I do. You don't. It's okay. There's differences on the right and left,

03:59conservative, liberal, Democrat, Republican. But the statistics that we're using,

04:05because it takes a number of years to actually develop them, are not from when he was even in

04:10the presidency. They are from when Joe Biden was the president of the United States. And I'm not

04:15going to lay that on Joe Biden's feet either. But the point is, to push that all on President

04:20Trump is inherently unfair. So let's stop it. And I know, Mr. Moskowitz, you say that this isn't

04:26enough, but damn it, we had to start somewhere. You know, I wish I had more time, because I can't

04:31overuse my time either. But Ms. Cooper, I'm going to ask you questions real quickly, and I just want

04:37a yes or a no. Are universities that tolerate harassment of Jewish students violating their

04:43obligations under Title VI? Yes or no? Has the threat environment on campuses escalated

04:48tremendously, including Rutgers, and I hope somebody from Rutgers, including the new president

04:52is watching since October 7th, 2023? Yes or no? Yes. Has the Trump administration strengthened

04:58enforcement of Title VI through investigations, etc.? Yes or no? Yes. Should colleges that allow open

05:04support for terrorist groups like Hamas and their campuses be subject to loss of federal funding?

05:09Yes or no? Yes. More. What are the consequences of university administrators when they treat chance

05:17like from the river to the sea as protected speech instead of addressing them as threats? Is that right?

05:23Yes or no? It's not right. Not right. Should student groups that glorify terrorist organizations

05:29face disciplinary questions and consequences? Yes or no? Yes and more. Do you believe that some of the

05:35current federal civil rights enforcement tools are too slow or too weak for modern campus anti-semitism?

05:43Very weak. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I yield my time back. Next is and we have

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