Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana also repeatedly suggested the witness, a leading Arab American activist, supports Hamas even as she repeatedly denied it.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., repeatedly suggested a leading Arab American activist is a Hamas supporter when she testified Tuesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on hate crimes, and he told her she should hide her "head in a bag."
The activist, Maya Berry, said repeatedly that she did not support Hamas and was "disappointed" by the minuteslong exchange toward the end of a hearing called "A Threat to Justice Everywhere: Stemming the Tide of Hate Crimes in America."
"You are the executive director of the Arab American Institute, are you not?" Kennedy said at the beginning of the exchange. She said she was and agreed with Kennedy that she is a Democratic activist.
"You support Hamas, do you not?" Kennedy asked, referring to the militant group behind the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel. The question prompted gasps and surprised laughs from the audience.
"Senator, oddly enough, I'm going to say thank you for that question, because it demonstrates the purpose of our hearing today in a very effective way," Berry responded. Kennedy then cut her off and insisted he needed a yes-or-no answer.
"You know what's disappointing to me? You can't bring yourself to say don't support UNWRA, you don't support Hamas, you don't support Hezbollah and you don't support Iran. You should hide your head in a bag," he concluded, to gasps and yells from the audience.
What an asshole.
Asked by Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., whether she had anything she wanted to say after the Kennedy exchange, Berry said, "It's regrettable that I, as I sit here, have experienced the very issue that we're attempting to deal with today.
We also need to subtract 18 years from the average life expectancy of USA citizens and disenfranchise the elderly. They should have no say on long-term issues that they won't live to regret.
Also, I guarantee we'll see proper funding for health care when they want to keep expressing their preferences a little longer.
This is one of the dumbest motherfuckers that I have ever had the displeasure of hearing speak. Every single time I've seen this moron speak, I've walked away stupider.
It is absolutely shocking to me that this man graduated high school, let alone college or fucking law school.
Mind boggling.
Just seeing his photograph in the thumbnail, I can hear his stupid fucking voice...
I heard he was a democrat in the past and looked up some of his ads/debates during the 2004 election. He criticized tax breaks for the rich and advocated for affordable education and equal opportunity for minorities. Jesus it's like he got replaced by a lizard person.
Gotta love how he completely ignores her answers and asks follow up questions that imply she said the opposite of what she actually said. And how he repeatedly criticizes her for unequivocally stating her position in complete sentences instead of just saying yes or no, which would be less clear and easier to take out of context.
He was also allegedly a lawyer at some point, but I find that difficult to believe.
It's like something happens to a boomer's brain when they hit 40 that just drains any intelligence or empathy the person might have once had, and it's replaced with selfishness and cruelty.
B) Anyone who says they support Palestinians but not Hamas are intentionally being ignorant, since the vast majority of the Palestinians in Gaza support Hamas and their attack(s) on Israel based on decently reputable local polling (not sourced by Israel)
People need to take their head out of the sand and realize that this isn't just an Israeli invasion, it's a war that both sides want to keep fighting. It's just a stupid war since Palestine is significantly weaker and getting their ass handed to them. The only reason Hamas is even still able to keep fighting is they're being heavily funded with money and weapons from outside countries that want to weaken Israel. Gaza is dirt poor, they have no militarily exploitable resources or weapons production ability.
My support for Palestinians isn't automatic support for everything they support. I don't give a shit if the majority support Hamas in some way, even if I strongly disagree with that support.
But that disagreement doesn't mean I'm going to stand back and watch these people get wiped out in a coordinated act of genocide. I can disagree with a culture's values without being complacent as members of that culture are mass-murdered.
There are a fringe minority here who want to see the roles reversed and a genocide committed against the Israeli people, but those people are psychopaths, and they are outnumbered. Most of us just want to see a stop to mass civilian casualties, and you can't both-sides that issue right now because, even including the Oct. 7 attack a year ago, Palestinians are suffering orders of magnitude more than Israelis right now.
First off, I'm not even American so I don't support Vance or any other American politician.
Secondly, you support the American government, which killed around half a million middle eastern civilians in retaliation for 9/11.
Thirdly, if Israel was trying to wipe out Palestinians they're doing an absolute shit job of it. They're barely killing them faster than the birth rate and it would take centuries to wipe them out at the current rate.
Finally, no you can't say you support Palestinians and ignore what they stand for. You either don't actually support Palestinians, or you support their war. Say you support not killing instead, and drop the Palestinian conditional.
I am not arguing in bad faith. The fact that you think my claims are unbelievable is part of the problem, you're clearly uneducated on the situation along with the vast majority of Palestinians supporters. Here's the sources.
People need to take their head out of the sand and realize that this isn't just an Israeli invasion, it's a war that both sides want to keep fighting. It's just a stupid war since Palestine is significantly weaker and getting their ass handed to them.
Uh... Sorry Palestinians don't want to be occupied and ethnically cleansed from their land?
They're also heavily funded with money from Israel, who wants them to keep fighting. Per Netanyahu's own admission, Israel has been covertly supporting Hamas so that the PA can't gain enough power to actually make a viable Palestinian state.
It only took almost a year, but reputable articles saying the willingness of Palestinians to be martyrs is wavering are finally starting to come out. There needs to be more of this because the perception of many is that the 'civilians' are actually terrorist sympathizers, or children being jeopardized by terrorist sympathizers.
They lost support when they saw the consequences of their choices. That still makes them terrorist sympathizers, they had to support it initially in order to abandon support.