Republican Senator Yells at Muslim Witness, Falsely Accuses Him of Supporting Hamas During Hate Crime Hearing

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A Senate hearing on hate incidents ended Tuesday with a Republican lawmaker yelling at a witness and falsely accusing him of supporting terrorism.

The bizarre scene unfolded on camera during a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which met to discuss the rise in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate incidents in the United States, which have increased sharply since the Gaza conflict began last October.

Sen. John Kennedy was questioning Maya Berry of the Arab American Institute when he began yelling at her that she “supported” Hamas and Hezbollah.

Berry unequivocally denied both accusations individually, but Kennedy clearly wasn’t listening, as he repeated the accusation against Hamas seconds later.

“You can’t condemn UNRWA, and you can’t condemn Hamas!” the Louisiana Republican shouted, referring to the U.N.-run organization that provides aid to the Palestinian territories; a report from the organization suggested some of its employees may have had knowledge of or been involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel last year.

Adding to the confusion of the moment: A male protester at the back of the room began yelling at the senator as he questioned the panel’s guest, and committee chairman Dick Durbin repeatedly banged his gavel in response.

Kennedy is no stranger to such situations, and has tried to turn committee hearings into spectacles before. During a 2022 hearing with Attorney General Merrick Garland, he used his questioning time to try to push Garland to describe the percentage of American police officers he believed harbored racist beliefs. He has also displayed a propensity for personal insults, calling Vice President Kamala Harris a “ding-dong” and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “stupid.”

But his latest remarks come as his party is already under fire for fomenting conspiracies about legal migrants from Haiti living in Springfield, Ohio, and after a six-year-old boy was stabbed dozens of times in an apparently spree attack on Muslims in Illinois last year.

His antics have already drawn criticism; last year he was denounced as “vulgar” and “racist” by the Mexican government after suggesting that, “figuratively speaking,” Mexicans would “eat canned cat food and live in a tent behind an Outback (Steakhouse)” without U.S. foreign aid.

Those comments earned him a heated round of questioning from Fox’s Neil Cavuto, who asked if he had joined the so-called “crazy” wing of the Republican Party, a term coined by Kennedy himself.

The Louisiana senator’s tirade Tuesday was denounced by Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, as well as others on social media such as journalist and Zeteo founder Medhi Hasan, who called Kennedy a bigot.

“The racist and Islamophobic rhetoric used by many members of Congress is intended to silence us and incite violence against us. It is disgusting how many of my colleagues remain silent when hatred is directed at Arabs and Muslims,” Tlaib wrote in a message.