A GOP senator’s focus on antisemitic comments from one Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employee spurred forceful pushback from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who said it was “despicable” to suggest the views are representative of his agency.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) zeroed in on social media comments from a DHS employee made in the wake of the Hamas-Israel war who has since been placed on administrative leave.
While Mayorkas declined to answer further questions about the review of their employment, Hawley told the secretary, who is Jewish, that it was “despicable” that he was failing to address his questions.
The episode spurred an emotional response from the mild-mannered secretary, who has begun to more directly address often personal attacks from GOP members of Congress.
“Number one: What I found despicable is the implication that this language, tremendously odious, actually could be emblematic of the sentiments of the 260,000 men and women of the Department of Homeland Security,” Mayorkas said.
“Number two: Senator Hawley takes an adversarial approach to me in this question, and perhaps he doesn’t know my own background. Perhaps he does not know that I am the child of a Holocaust survivor. Perhaps he does not know that my mother lost almost all her family at the hands of the Nazis. And so I find his adversarial tone to be entirely misplaced. I find it to be disrespectful of me and my heritage,” he added.
“I do not expect an apology. But I did want to say what I just articulated.”
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chair Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said the committee needed to move on when Hawley asked for a chance to respond, and the Missouri senator did not raise the issue again during his second line of questioning.
“You have employees who are celebrating genocide, and you are saying it’s despicable for me to ask the question,” Hawley told Mayorkas during their exchange.