Sen. Josh Hawley didn’t hold back during a heated Senate hearing on Thursday. He went after Kenneth S. Stern, director at the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, over Stern’s recent NPR comments.
Hawley quoted Stern, saying the Trump administration’s move to cancel Columbia University’s federal funding made Jewish students “less safe.” Then he dropped the hammer.
He brought up Mahmoud Khalil, calling him a “pro-Hamas foreign rioter.” Hawley listed accusations: supporting terrorism, lying on a green card application, and assaulting Jewish students. “Do you still believe this?” he demanded.
Stern tried to explain. “OCR has a very important role,” he said. But Hawley cut in.
“When you start using the Department of Justice and threatening universities' funding—” Stern started. Again, Hawley interrupted.
“Just want this on the record,” Hawley said. “You are opposed to investigating Columbia University and others for antisemitism?”
“No,” Stern replied.
“That’s what you said, six days ago,” Hawley shot back.
“I am not opposed to doing it the right way,” Stern clarified.
Hawley pushed again. He brought up Stern’s earlier claim that investigating schools was “weaponizing antisemitism.” Stern didn’t deny it. He said the DOJ had “a list of places they want to go to.”
He pointed to Sen. Edward Markey’s remarks earlier in the hearing. Markey had warned, “The answer to antisemitism will never be authoritarianism.”
Hawley called that “insane.” He doubled down. “I thought it was totally insane,” he said. “And I think your positions are similarly insane.”
Then came the knockout. “We would bend over backwards to hug and kiss and make nice to a pro-Hamas rioter… and that makes Jewish students less safe? That’s nuts.”
Khalil, an anti-Israel activist at Columbia, is now under federal scrutiny. The Trump administration says he hid key parts of his employment on his green card application.
He allegedly failed to mention his work for the UN Relief and Works Agency and his longer stay with the British Embassy’s Syria Office.
Now, his visa is on the chopping block.
At the same time, Trump’s team pulled $400 million in funding from Columbia over its handling of anti-Israel protests. The school announced new student policy changes just days later.
Other Ivy League students with visas or green cards are pushing back. They’re suing the Trump administration, citing First Amendment violations.