Rep. Greg Casar on Wednesday used his time during a House committee hearing about antisemitism at colleges to question Republicans about alleged antisemitism from President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“Will you condemn Trump for pardoning an antisemitic rioter?” Casar, a Democrat from Texas, asked the Republican chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee.
“I’m seeing four witnesses waiting for your question,” Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) responded.
“I’m asking you a question, Mr. Chairman. Your microphone works,” Casar said. “Do you condemn this?”
During the hearing, titled “Stopping the Spread of Antisemitism on American Campuses,” Republicans frequently grilled the presidents of Haverford College, DePaul University, and California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) at San Luis Obispo. They particularly accused Haverford College President Wendy Raymond of not doing enough to condemn and punish alleged antisemitism at pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
Democrats on the committee, however, often attempted to contrast GOP anger at that antisemitism with claims that Trump has harmed Jewish people by pardoning January 6th rioters, some of whom sported antisemitic symbols. Casar honed in on that during his allotted time to speak, and asked Republicans on the committee whether they would criticize Trump for failing to condemn Nazis who rallied against Jews in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, and if they would call out Kennedy for spreading an antisemitic theory that COVID-19 was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people” while “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese” people were “most immune.”
“If you condemn Donald Trump saying this … if you condemn the head of the U.S. Health and Human Services [Department] for spreading this antisemitic conspiracy theory, will you please raise your hand?” Casar asked Republicans on the committee.
“I’d suggest the hearing is to question the witnesses that are here, who have spent time and energy to come here,” Walberg said when Casar noted that no Republican raised their hand.
“Not a single Republican today has been willing to condemn any of this antisemitism. Unfortunately, the party of ‘very fine people on both sides,’ or ‘Jewish space lasers,’ does not give a damn about stopping antisemitism,” Casar said, a reference to Trump defending far-right, racist protesters in Charlottesville, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in 2018 implying that a California wildfire was started by a Jewish-owned “laser beam or a light beam.”
“If my Republican colleagues want to stop the spread of antisemitism, maybe they should stop apologizing for and promoting antisemites,” Casar added.
