Raskin asks how Stefanik can question anyone about antisemitism when she supports Trump
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Sunday blasted Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), whose questioning of three elite universities’ presidents during a hearing on antisemitism went viral last week, over the House GOP conference chair’s support for former President Trump.
“Where does Elise Stefanik get off lecturing anybody about antisemitism, when she’s the hugest supporter of Donald Trump, who traffics in antisemitism all the time?” Raskin asked during an interview with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi.
“She didn’t utter a peep of protest when he had Kanye West and Nick Fuentes over for dinner,” Raskin said. “Nick Fuentes, who doubts whether Oct. 7 even took place because he thinks it was some kind of suspicious propaganda move by the Israelis.
“The Republican Party is filled with people who are entangled with antisemitism like that,” Raskin added, “and yet somehow she gets on our high horse and lectures a Jewish college president from MIT.”
Velshi also asked Raskin, who is Jewish, about the weekend resignation of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill in the wake of the hearing and the possible consequences facing the other two college presidents who testified.
“I’m thinking about it as a father, as a parent,” Raskin replied in remarks highlighted by Mediate. “I mean, if my kids had been sent to college at great expense, like millions of people across the country, I want to know that, if somebody is actually calling for the genocide of the Jews or anybody else on campus, that we’ve got a college president who will say quickly get campus police over there, that person could be a danger to other people around them.”
“Especially in the age of the AR-15, when we’ve had, you know, genocidal-style language being used, but also massacres taking place like at the Tree of Life synagogue, in Pittsburgh, or at the Buffalo supermarket. Those are right-wing antisemites who talk about the great replacement theory. We had a guy at Cornell, who was making death threats towards Jews, and we had three Palestinian college kids who were shot in Burlington, Vt., of all places.”
Raskin further highlighted the heightened danger that he said lax gun laws pose.
“With lax Republican gun laws across the country, we’ve got to take very seriously anybody who’s making any kind of violent threats, especially genocidal threats,” he added.
The Hill has reached out to Stefanik’s office for comment on Raskin’s remarks.
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