Mayorkas Fires Back at Sen. Hawley’s ‘Despicable’ Criticism: ‘I’m a Child of a Holocaust Survivor’
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas grew irate with Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) line of questioning at a hearing Tuesday, calling his words “despicable” and “odious.”
Hawley questioned Mayorkas about a DHS officer who posted images to social media of a Hamas paraglider with a machine gun, and the caption “Free Palestine.”
“Mr. Secretary, what’s going on here? Is this typical of people who work at DHS? This is an asylum & immigration officer who is posting these, frankly, pro-genocidal slogans and images on the day that Israelis are being slaughtered in their beds. What have you done about this?” Hawley asked.
As Mayorkas tried to answer, Hawley demanded to know, “Has she been fired?”
Mayorkas answered that the officer had been placed on administrative leave and that he could not comment on an “ongoing personnel matter.”
Hawley then asked whether the officer “adjudicated any cases involving Israelis seeking asylum in this country?” Again, Mayorkas said he wouldn’t comment on a personnel matter.
“Has she admitted, contrary to law, individuals who should not be in this country, or denied Jewish refugees, whose genocide she’s advocating, asylum that they deserve?”
“Same answer,” Mayorkas replied, referring to his refusal to comment on a personnel matter.
Hawley continued:
HAWLEY: I can’t believe that you would come to this committee knowing about this! I’ve written to you about it. You know all about it! And you come here, and you’re unwilling to answer, and suggest that it’s wrong of me to even ask the question! Quite frankly, Mr. Secretary, I think that your performance is despicable and I think the fact that you’re not willing to provide answers to this committee is absolutely atrocious.
MAYORKAS: Mr. Chairman, may I?
CHAIRMAN: If you’d like to have a minute to respond —
MAYORKAS: Oh, I would, and I’m not sure I’ll limit it to 60 seconds.
CHAIRMAN: That’s fine.
MAYORKAS: Number one, what I found despicable was 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, number one.
Number two, Sen. 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’m a child of a Holocaust survivor. Perhaps he does not know that my mother lost all of 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. And I do not expect an apology, but I did want to say what I just articulated.
Hawley then asked the chairman if he could respond, but was denied.
Hawley has a history of sparring with Mayorkas at Senate committee hearings, once asking, “Why should you not be impeached?”
Watch the video above via C-Span.
