Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana attacked a witness at a listening to on hate crimes utilizing a line of racist questioning so vile that it might function a handbook for why hate crime laws is critical. In a string of sneering statements, Kennedy accused Maya Berry—the chief director of the Arab American Institute—of supporting terrorists, then refused to permit her to reply, then ignored what she mentioned as he continued the assault.
The listening to was meant to have a look at the rise in hate speech and reported hate crimes throughout the nation, together with these directed at each Jewish and Muslim communities amid the newest battle between Israel and Hamas. And Kennedy turned it right into a reside demonstration of the best way to enhance the hate.
In a sequence of questions, the senator requested Berry if she supported Hamas. When she mentioned she didn’t assist Hamas and made it clear the query was offensive, Kennedy talked over her and went on as if she hadn’t offered a response. He then repeated this act with the militant group Hezbollah. After which Iran. Then with a United Nations program that Kennedy unfairly painted as supporting terrorists.
Kennedy started his time mentioning that Berry was a long-time Democratic Occasion activist and a member of the Democratic Nationwide Committee in 2016, which he appeared to suppose was against the law all by itself. Then he moved instantly into the assault in a approach that clearly shocked Berry.
Kennedy: You assist Hamas, do you not?
Berry: I— Senator, oddly sufficient I’m going to say thanks for that query as a result of it demonstrates the aim for our listening to in the present day. It—
Kennedy: Let’s begin first with a sure or no.
Berry: Hamas is a overseas terrorist group that I don’t assist. However you asking the chief director of the Arab American Institute that query very a lot places the give attention to the problem of hate in our nation.
Kennedy: I obtained your reply, and I respect it. What’s the, uh— You assist Hezbollah too, don’t you?
Whereas Berry responded to Kennedy’s disgusting remarks with the form of steely grace that so many civil rights leaders have been pressured to show over the many years, her therapy within the Senate chamber was surprising. That was very true in Kennedy’s ultimate moments.
Kennedy: Let me ask you yet one more time. You assist Hamas, don’t you? You assist UNRWA and Hamas, don’t you?
Berry: Sir, I believe it’s exceptionally disappointing that you just’re taking a look at an Arab American witness earlier than you and saying, “You support Hamas.”
Kennedy: You realize what’s disappointing to me—
Berry: I don’t assist Hamas. I don’t assist Hamas or any—
Kennedy: You possibly can’t deliver your self to say you don’t assist UNRWA, you don’t assist assist Hamas, you don’t assist Hezbollah—
Berry: I used to be very clear in my assist for UNRWA. I—
Kennedy: —and also you don’t assist Iran. It is best to disguise your head in a bag.
UNRWA is the United Nations’ reduction company for Palestinian refugees. It’s in the course of a vaccine drive after polio has made a reappearance amongst displaced Palestinians, and it has the first duty for well being care and meals distribution in refugee camps. Berry has made clear she helps the efforts of UNRWA. Kennedy focused the group as a result of Israel’s U.N. ambassador has claimed that UNRWA has ties to Hamas, which is broadly disputed.
The total listening to may be discovered right here.
Regardless that the aim of the listening to, which Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin opened by giving examples of how hate crimes of every kind had been on the rise, a number of Republicans confirmed disdain for the listening to—and particularly for the concept that it ought to embrace issues over hate speech in opposition to Arab People or Muslims. That included Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina complaining that the listening to ought to be about solely antisemitism and never “lumping” that downside in with every other.
However whereas others demonstrated the flippancy and contempt Republicans have repeatedly proven when discussing hate crimes, Kennedy’s efficiency went above and past in its surprising therapy of a witness and its reinforcement of precisely why hate is on the rise.
Regardless of appearances, Kennedy just isn’t an fool. His accent is closely exaggerated. His cornpone method is an act. His complete dumber-than-a-box-of-rocks schtick is the creation of an Oxford-educated multimillionaire who reinvented himself as an aw-shucks man of the folks. He acts this manner not as a result of he’s a idiot however as a result of that’s what he thinks of his constituents.
Kennedy knew precisely what he was doing in that listening to. Which makes it infinitely worse.
Kennedy’s assertion that Berry ought to “hide [her] head in a bag” got here the identical week that the Taliban started imposing new draconian legal guidelines in Afghanistan requiring ladies to cowl their faces in public. Apparently Kennedy would slot in significantly better there than in the USA Senate.
