Hawley blasts ‘insane’ liberal attorney during Senate hearing on campus antisemitism

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., unleashed on Kenneth S. Stern, attorney and director at the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, during a Senate committee hearing on Thursday, challenging his recent comments on NPR that the Trump administration’s cancellation of Columbia University’s federal grants makes Jewish students “less safe.”

“I see that five or six days ago you gave an interview in which you said that the removal of Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Hamas foreign rioter, is a form of McCarthyism and makes Jewish students less safe. Now this is an individual that has been accused of endorsing and espousing terrorist activity, who has been accused of lying on his green card application in the U.S., who is currently being sued for terrorizing and assaulting Jewish students. Do you still believe this?” Hawley probed.

In response, before Hawley cut him off, Stern said he’d “been very clear that OCR has a very important role, that there are complaints that should go through the process.” 

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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., gets into a verbal squabble with Kenneth S. Stern, director at the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, during a Senate committee hearing on antisemitism on college campuses. (C-SPAN/Pool)

“When you start using the Department of Justice and threatening universities’ funding,” Stern began, but Hawley interrupted.

“I just want to get this on the record: You are opposed to investigating Columbia University and others for antisemitism?” Hawley said, cutting off Stern.

“No,” Stern said.

“That’s what you said, six days ago,” Hawley interjected.

“I am not opposed to doing it the right way,” Stern said.

Hawley further pressed Stern about the Trump administration’s investigation into the failure to protect Jewish students, pointing out that Stern had previously claimed such an investigation would be “weaponizing antisemitism” and make students less safe.

Stern responded by agreeing that it was indeed weaponizing antisemitism when the Department of Justice had “a list of places they want to go to.”

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Anti-Israel protesters march on Capitol Hill on July 24, 2024. (Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images)

Stern pointed to Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Edward Markey’s earlier statements in the hearing in which he said “the answer to antisemitism will never be authoritarianism. We cannot guarantee freedom if we let Trump march in and steal freedom.”

Hawley responded that he had heard Markey’s comments and called them “insane.”

“I heard his whole speech. I thought it was insane,” Hawley said. “I just want to say, for the record, I thought it was totally insane. And I think your positions are similarly insane. I think the idea that we would bend over backwards to hug and kiss and make nice to a pro-Hamas rioter, because that’s what Khalil is, and that we would say, ‘Heavens, we have, we can’t remove him.’ And that makes Jewish students less safe on our campuses. That’s nuts.”

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People march in support of Palestinians in New York on Oct. 8, 2023, after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP)

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Mahmoud Khalil, an anti-Israel activist and Columbia University student, faces allegations from the Trump administration for allegedly omitting details about his employment history on his green card application. 

Specifically, he purportedly failed to disclose his role as a “political affairs officer” with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees between June and November 2023, as well as his extended tenure with the Syria Office at the British Embassy in Beirut beyond 2022. As such, the administration has initiated proceedings to revoke Khalil’s visa.

Concurrently, the administration pulled $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University over its handling of anti-Israel campus riots last year. The Ivy League university announced major changes on Friday to align its student policies with Trump’s demands.

Several Ivy League students holding visas or green cards have since filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, alleging First Amendment violations.