'No Relevant Experience': Seth Magaziner Rips Trump Over 22-Year-Old Appointee To Anti-Violence Post

Forbes Breaking News

During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing last month, Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI) spoke about Thomas Fugate, a 22-year-old appointee to the Department of Homeland Security's Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships.

Transcript

00:00Thank you to the chair and to our witnesses for some very good testimony.

00:05I'll start with Mr. Siegel and your recommendations, which were very helpful.

00:10Your first one was expanding funding for the nonprofit security grant program.

00:16That resonates with me because I know in my district in Rhode Island,

00:19we have numerous synagogues, churches, schools, mosques that have utilized that program.

00:27This is a federal program that helps those religious and community-based organizations

00:33get the security upgrades that they need to keep people safe, cameras, facial recognition, etc.

00:42As of yesterday, and I believe this is still the case,

00:46the Trump administration has still not awarded $210 million of nonprofit security grant funds from fiscal 24

00:54and has also not even noticed the funding for fiscal 25, an additional $274 million for availability.

01:03So that's, in total, nearly half a billion dollars that the administration is withholding

01:09in nonprofit security grant funds to say nothing of the budget for next year that they propose,

01:16which is also inadequate.

01:17So can you just, I mean, help us out here?

01:19Part of our job as Congress, as members of Congress, is to hold the administration accountable

01:23and to make sure the administration is doing everything that it can to protect people

01:28from anti-Semitic violence in this country.

01:31Can you just speak some more about the importance of releasing these grant funds right away

01:39and why the administration needs to act immediately on it?

01:42Yeah, thank you for the question.

01:43You know, attending an event at a Jewish museum or marching or walking peacefully

01:52to show solidarity with hostages or walking to class or even just walking down the street in Brooklyn

02:02should not be an act of courage.

02:06But that's where we are.

02:07And so the community is feeling vulnerable.

02:13This is a crisis moment.

02:16And we need to rely on our leaders and the government to help protect communities when they are at most risk.

02:24And I think that's what we hope people will understand.

02:28And that these dollars are going to go not for superfluous issues,

02:34but to protect people so that they don't have to be courageous just to be publicly Jewish.

02:40That's very well said.

02:42And I'll just say again, I mean, I genuinely appreciate that the administration has stated

02:47that cracking down on anti-Semitism is a priority.

02:50It should be.

02:51But the actions need to follow the words.

02:53And a very basic action is to release the nearly half a billion dollars that Congress has already appropriated

02:59for the nonprofit security grant program so that lives can be saved.

03:04Your second recommendation had to do with the CP3 program.

03:09Again, for people at home who may not be familiar, can you explain what that is and why it's important?

03:14Yeah, the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships at DHS,

03:20the idea there is that it would help prevent mass casualty attacks and extremism,

03:28not just respond to it afterwards.

03:30And my sense is that based on some of the work that was done there, they helped save lives.

03:37You know, anti-Semitism is the lifeblood of many extremist movements, both domestically and globally.

03:44And so if we can push back against the narratives that we know animate people to violence at the earliest stages,

03:52the community will be safer.

03:54And that's what CP3 has the potential to do.

03:56It's about preventing people from becoming radicalized, especially young, impressionable people.

04:01And if I could, just again, I mentioned this earlier, but this, again, is the agency that President Trump has appointed

04:09this individual to lead, Mr. Fugate, a 22-year-old who just graduated from college earlier this year

04:17with no law enforcement experience, no national security experience, no intelligence experience.

04:22So I think what a lot of us are wondering is why, like there are plenty of qualified people out there.

04:29Is this the best we can do?

04:31I think there are some who are speculating that it's because the administration intends to shut down the CP3 program entirely

04:38and Mr. Fugate is there as a placeholder while it's wound down.

04:43It's, from what I understand, there have been significant firings and layoffs at CP3, which would support that theory.

04:52But the answer is we don't know.

04:54Now, if this is some whiz kid who is qualified somehow to lead this important office,

05:01then I think we at least ought to get him in here to ask him some questions about what his vision and his plans are.

05:06And, you know, with the extra minute that the chair was kind enough to grant me, I'll just ask any of our witnesses,

05:12does anyone feel comfortable having an individual with Mr. Fugate's profile and experience leading an office like CP3,

05:21given the charged environment that we're in right now?

05:25Yeah, look, I'd just like to say that if you look at the entire federal architecture in the four years that got us here,

05:33I think it was an abysmal failure.

05:36Yeah, but I'm asking about who's in charge right now.

05:38Well, that's the point, sir, because you have all these people who were charged with reducing anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in this country.

05:46But for four years, it just went up.

05:49I don't think that justifies, any of this justifies appointing a 22-year-old with no relevant experience

05:55to an agency charged with keeping us safe, an agency that the ADL has flagged in one of their top five recommendations

06:03as needing more support, not less.

06:05Sir, I think you've asked the wrong question.

06:06I will yield back.

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