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 support the American government”
What a brain dead thing to say. Yeah, we do, because we live here and have to pay taxes. We only have so many things we can do as normal citizens, only so many people we can vote for. Seeing you say all these bad faith statements constantly makes you look like a troll.
Also, you don’t have to live in America to support JD Vance. Plenty of non Americans support Harris or Trump, wtf are you on about?
“it’s not my fault my country killed a half million civilians, I can’t do anything about it.” -You
“I demand my government force another country to stop killing civilians immediately” -Also you
You seriously don’t see the problem with the way you’re thinking?
Why the fuck would I support American political candidates as a non-American? Just because plenty of people are stupid, doesn’t mean I need to be as well. Plenty of people think that most Palestinian civilians are innocent, but it doesn’t make it true.
I can demand that my government quit funding it with my tax dollars.
You could demand your government quit funding what they’re doing themselves kills people too… but I don’t see you doing that.
Did you demand they stop funding attacks after the half million middle eastern civilians were killed by allied forces during the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq?
Do you demand they stop funding Ukraine because it’s now invading Russia? The government is even thinking of now approving even more use of US military aid and technologies to hit further into Russia.
This is peak whataboutism.
Yes, I did, actually. In fact, I did that before a half million were killed. I was always against both wars. What’s your point?
No, because Russia is the aggressor here. Ukraine is a sovereign nation. Just like Palestine would be if not for Israel.
Wait, you think Israel is the aggressor?
You’re aware that the UN voted to create Israel from the rubble of the Ottoman empire, and 5 neighboring countries disagreed and violently invaded them literally the day after they declared independence right?
Some of those same countries (and others now) are still supporting the Palestinians with money and weapons to continue to attack Israel.
And what exactly can I do to stop it aside from vote? You act like you have all the answers so please tell me what the average low income American can do to stop a war half way across the world. I’ll wait for the how to guide.
Never said I demand anything, I said I vote. You seem to make it a habit of putting words in peoples mouths to fit your agenda. You own a farm? Because you’re building straw men like crazy lol.
I dunno, it is a very odd thing for you to do. It’s also very odd to tell citizens of another country how to behave and interact with their government. What country praytell are you living in? Are you personally making an effort to stop every bad thing their doing or do you just embrace your hypocrisy full force? Oh no, I bet you’re a “wait till people start dying to care” kinda guy.
You vote… great. You realize there’s more options than just voting right?
Am I personally making an effort to stop every bad thing my Canadian government is doing? I’m not sure, I don’t see any bad things they’re doing at the moment (including supporting Israel) despite the government being made up of people that I didn’t even vote for.
I don’t see a lot of things that they do as bad, I understand in that most of the things people get mad at them for aren’t really their fault (inflation), are necessary even though they upset a lot of people (immigration), are simply due to the limits of finite resources (healthcare), or are limits based on how our electoral system works and who’s voting (house inflation).
Do I encourage them to do better? Yes. I vote (lol) but I also regularly communicate with my provincial and federal representatives, and I participate in various activities to influence and affect the policies they implement.
You don’t see anything Canada is doing wrong? Oh I didn’t know that was an option, yeah the US is doing fine too then haha.
Wrong? No, not really. As I said, all of the “wrong” things I’m aware of aren’t in their control at all, and blaming the federal government for them is just stupid.
If you say so. I suppose it’s easier to complain about other countries than to look within. I mean the housing crisis, the health care system stain, issues with indigenous rights, outdated public transportation, BC and its whole opioid epidemic. But I guess those aren’t problems the government could do anything about at all…
The housing crisis is an issue of democracy, not the federal government. Fixing it would get them voted out in a heartbeat, because the only fix is to drop existing house prices by around 80-90% and 65% of the population lives in a house they or their family own. Homeowners are also far more likely to vote.
The health care system strain is an issue of resources, there’s an unlimited possibility to spend money here to do more. The government has to balance available money with an acceptable level of care. Again if you asked voters for an extra $1000 each a year to boost healthcare, you’d likely get voted out.
Indigenous rights, same problem. You can’t give the land back entirely, the citizens wouldn’t allow it. What will citizens allow, and indigenous people accept that will resolve the situation? Probably nothing. So they balance what they can, and neither party is exactly happy.
Public transportation is a provincial, or even a municipal issue, not a federal one. It’s also not a popular issue with voters, because again the demographics of voters is heavily tilted towards car owners.
We’ve tried things for the opioid epidemic, other places have tried things for the opioid epidemic, nobody in the world has found a solution yet. Even countries with harsh drug laws like Japan are seeing massive drug use deaths, almost 100k people a year right now. So how is it OUR government that’s failing?
The system of government we have follows what people want, and people don’t always want what they say when there’s a cost associated with it. It’s all well and good to say “I want this fixed” but if you put the real price tag on it, people are rarely willing to pay that cost. It costs more than the annual family income to jail someone for a year for example. Lots of people are tough on crime, until they realize it takes all the taxes for their entire block to pay for one inmate.