'We Have A First Amendment For A Reason': Jared Huffman Grills Sec. Duffy On Public Display Of Jesus

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During a House Transportation Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) confronted Secretary Sea Duffy over the public display of a painting of Jesus at the US Merchant Marine Academy.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Welcome back. It's good to see you. I know you're wearing several hats

00:05these days. I'm going to ask you about your role in overseeing the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

00:12Thank you. A couple months ago, you did a fair amount of press about a portrait painting of

00:19Jesus Christ that you had placed prominently in a meeting area of the Academy, and you had said

00:27that you were taking it out of the basement and putting it into a place of prominence. So I want

00:32to ask you a little bit about that, and I believe you've put a copy of the same painting in your

00:37personal office. So I want you to know I have no problem with you decorating your office the way

00:42you want. I understand your Catholic faith is very central to you. Your office is yours to decorate

00:49in any way you want, but I'm troubled by this notion of this place of prominence in a room,

00:56in this case, the Elliott MC room at the Academy, which is the place where they have mandatory

01:03meetings, where they have honor code hearings, disciplinary hearings for cadets. And I guess I

01:11want to just ask you, you know, overseeing an institution that is multicultural, that is secular,

01:18that is a public institution. What kind of message do you think that sends to the cadets who may not

01:25be Christian, may not be religious, or might be part of a Christian sect that objects to the kind

01:32of portrait that you've placed in that position of prominence? I would just note that we have the

01:36freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. And this painting was in this place of prominence for

01:44I believe 70 years, and it was folded up and moved to the basement. So the basement was a chapel,

01:50it was put into the chapel by your predecessor, not put away to be hidden in a basement, right? That's

01:56misleading, Mr. Secretary. It was folded up and put in the basement of the chapel, you're right.

02:01It was refurbished and then placed in a position in the chapel. But it was also,

02:06the history, Mr. Secretary, you know this, I think, it started out in a chapel. This is a painting that

02:11started out in a chapel. They actually folded the painting up, and now it's being restored,

02:16it has to be unfolded to put back in his place of prominence. This is Christ on the water. These

02:21are sailors, and it has a lot of history within the Merchant Marine Academy. And I love your attention

02:28to this Christ on the water photo, but I think this Congress, and it's not in your body, but

02:33this is the most... So what's the message to Jews, and Muslims, and Hindus, and non-religious?

02:38We all live together. Listen... In their disciplinary proceedings.

02:41We all accept, listen, we all accept everyone's religion, and this is a painting. We don't. I

02:47don't know if you have any anti-Semites here. I don't think you do. I hope not.

02:50You don't think the Establishment Clause prohibits favoring a single religion over all others?

02:54Listen, we're not, this is a historic painting. It historically was in a chapel.

02:58It's a historic, it's a historic painting, and I have no objection to it being moved. I've actually

03:04called for it to be taken out of the basement and put back in its place of prominence.

03:07Mr. Secretary...

03:08But let me just... The issue here is that the Merchant Marine Academy has been underfunded

03:15for too long. You have merchant... Is that policy, or is that...

03:19You have midshipmen that are eating off of paper plates and using plastic forks. They didn't have

03:23hot water for four months. So if you want to talk about the Merchant Marine Academy,

03:26let's look at how these poor midshipmen have been served by the Congress and the last DOT.

03:31You promised them more funding in your speech to the cadets. How's that going?

03:34They deserve more money, and I need that money from all of you. And I hope you give me the 1.5

03:39billion dollars that's necessary to make this a state-of-the-art academy. But not having hot

03:43water for four months, that should be what you're concerned about. You don't have paper plates,

03:47you should be concerned about that. And maybe respect the First Amendment while you deliver hot water,

03:50Mr. Secretary. We have a First Amendment for a reason. Mr. Mast.

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