The Daily Signal - What You Say as a Representative Matters: Rep. David Kustoff on Antisemitism in America, Congress

Episode Date: February 4, 2022

Antisemitism is a problem, not only in the Middle East, but also in the United States. It’s also a problem that some members of Congress are willing to engage in and/or are willing to ignore in their own ranks. In 2019, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., made a series of remarks many considered to be antisemitic. Rep. David Kustoff of Tennessee is one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress and was horrified by what she has said. Among other things, Omar has implied that American Jews hold a dual loyalty to the U.S. and to Israel, and stated that Jews had "hypnotized the world." "What a congressman or senator says or does or demonstrates matters, and it gets magnified," he explained. "The fact of the matter is, when you have members who say some of the things that some of their members say, people pay attention, and it gains some resonance around the world." Kustoff joins the show to discuss where Congress has failed to push back against antisemitism in its ranks and what Congress’ role in combating it is. Also on today's show: The global leader of ISIS is dead following a counterterrorism raid in Syria by U.S. special forces. Virginia's new attorney general is getting involved in a lawsuit over mandatory masks in the state's schools. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and other officials emphasize the importance of mask-wearing at the Super Bowl after he was spotted not wearing one at an NFL playoff game last weekend. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get the yes you've been waiting for at Capital One.ca.ca. slash yes. Terms and conditions apply. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, February 4th. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Doug Blair. Antisemitism is a rising problem around the world. It's sadly, also a problem that some members of Congress are willing to engage in or will ignore in their own ranks. Congressman David Kustoff is one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress. He joins the show to discuss what Congress's role in fighting anti-Semitism is. But before we get to Doug's conversation with Congressman Kustoff. Let's hit our top news stories of the day. The global leader of ISIS is dead, according to President Joe Biden.

Abu Ibram al-Hashimi Al-Quasei was killed in Syria Wednesday night. His death is the result of a U.S. Special Forces raid on the residence where the ISIS leader was staying. Al-Quasi blew himself up, along with members of his family as U.S. troops approached. President Biden announced the ISIS leader's death from the White House Thursday morning per Fox 5. Thanks to the brave of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more. Our forces carried out the operation with their signature preparation and precision. Al-Qaeda took over as the leader of ISIS in 2018. Biden noted that the ISIS leader has carried out numerous acts of violence.

He was responsible for the recent brutal attack on a prison in northeast Syria holding ISIS fighter. which was swiftly addressed by our brave partners in the Syrian Democratic Forces. He was the driving force behind the genocide of the Ossetian people in northwestern Iraq in 2014. We all remember the gut-wrenching stories, mass slaughters that wiped out entire villages. Thousands of women and young girls sold into slavery. Rape used as a weapon of war. U.S. forces also killed an ISIS lieutenant during the raid. administration officials said the raid took numerous months to plan, but thankfully there were no U.S. casualties.

Virginia's new Attorney General is getting involved in a lawsuit over mandatory masks in Commonwealth schools. On Wednesday, Attorney General Jason Mierrez filed a motion along with Governor Glenn Yonkin and State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jillian Bello. The team is looking to join a group of Loudoun County parents suing the school board after it refuted. to allow parents to opt their kids out of school mask mandates. The school district says it could suspend unmasked students as punishment. In a press release announcing the motion, Miare said, When the pandemic started, Governor Northam used his emergency powers

to close down places of worship, private businesses, and schools, and impose a universal mask mandate. Nearly two years later, Governor Yonkin is using those same emergency powers to adapt to our current phase in the same pandemic by giving parents the ability to opt out of a school mask mandate. Yonkin promised to give parents more choice about masking their kids if he was elected and signed the executive order removing mask mandates within hours of being sworn into office. The order took effect a week later.

While many school districts across the Commonwealth dropped their mask mandates when the order went into effect, many in Northern Virginia did not, including Loudoun County. Those districts also filed lawsuits against the governor to try and, and invalidate the order. If you are lucky enough to be going to Super Bowl 56 in Los Angeles, you have to do so wearing a mask. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and other officials emphasize the importance of mask wearing at the game during a press conference Wednesday.

The senior vice president for campus and facility operations for SoFi Stadium in L.A., Russ Simmons said there will be plenty of staff at the game to remind people to mask up. The emphasis on masking at the Super Bowl comes after several top California political leaders, including Mayor Eric Garcetti and Governor Gavin Newsom, were photographed massless at the Rams 49ers game last Sunday. The photos were posted on Twitter by former Lakers player Magic Johnson. Garcetti defended the pictures to the press Wednesday, saying he held his breath to take the pictures per ABC 7. I wore my mask the entire game, and when people ask for a photograph, I hold my breath, and I put it here, and people could see that. There's a 0% chance of infection from that. Governor Newsom has also told the press that he only removed the mask to take the photos.

Now stay tuned for my conversation with Representative David Kustoff as we discuss how Congress can fight anti-Semitism. Are you looking for an easy and entertaining way to keep up with the news you care about? The Daily Signal and Heritage Foundation YouTube channels offer interviews with policy experts on the most critical issues and debates America is facing today, as well as short explainer videos that break down complex issues and documentaries that dive deep into the way its policy actually impacts people. Go ahead and subscribe to both the Daily Signal and Heritage Foundation YouTube channels today. You can search for either on your YouTube app or visit YouTube.com slash. Heritage Foundation and YouTube.com slash DailySignal. My guest today is Congressman David Kustoff, who represents Tennessee's 8th Congressional District. Congressman, welcome to the show.

You're very kind to have me. I appreciate being here. Well, we always appreciate having members of Congress here at the Daily Signal. I'd like to talk with you today specifically about a very important topic that I feel like really doesn't get a lot of press these days, which is this kind of rise in anti-Semitism in America. So to start off, is anti-Semitism on the rise in America? Yeah, it definitely is.

And, you know, I've got a unique perspective because I'm a Jewish member of Congress, one of two Republican Jewish members in the House of Representatives. And we see it. You don't have to be Jewish to see it. You know, you think about the very start of this year, the situation in Collieville, Texas, which was clearly anti-Semitic, was clearly a hate crime, and I think it's symbolic, if you will, of what we've seen the last several years. Unfortunately, I think some of it is driven right here in Washington, because when you have leaders on the, primarily on the other side of the aisle, that talk about this, whether it's an aside or what have you,

people pay attention. Not only people here, but people around the world. So the statistics demonstrate and they definitely show that anti-Semitism is on the rise. It's on the rise here. It's on the rise around the world. And we've got to be serious about ways to combat it. Absolutely. Well, you mentioned that there are members of the other side of the aisle, specifically, I think we can refer to them as the squad. Democrats Rashida Talib and Ilan Homar specifically have been accused on various occasions of making anti-Semitic comments. So I guess I want to start off with how do you feel when your colleagues make statements like that? It's very difficult.

You know, first of all, we're here. We shouldn't be attacking anybody based on their race, religion, ethnicity, what have you, especially as leaders. And if I can pull back from them, because one thing that I've learned to appreciate, and I'm five years as a United States representative in my third term, my words matter. What a congressman or senator says or does or demonstrates matters,

and it gets magnified. And so if you take it out of the realm of the United States, the rest of the world, you have a member of Congress that makes anti-Semitic remarks, makes remarks about the significance of Israel's right to exist, and they make it in a negative way. Well, around the world, they're looking at this beacon of democracy that we have in Washington, and they see that if a member of Congress can say something like this, then it must be resonating. Now, it may be isolated. And I'm not throwing a blanket over any political party because there are certainly those leaders in the Democratic Party who condone all of this. But the fact of the matter is that when you have members who say some of the things that some of their members say, people pay attention and it gains some resonance.

around the world. I think that's such a fascinating thing that you just said where what you say as a representative matters, not just here, but around the world. What type of message do you think it sends both to Americans at home and to people who are looking to America, possibly in Israel, possibly in Europe, who are thinking, well, what is this woman saying? Why are they saying these things that are so anti-Semitic? Well, for the vast majority of people, I think it hangers them and aggravates them at the same time, that people can make anti-Semitic remarks, cast it aside as however they want to label it, and essentially get away with it. For the overwhelming majority of Americans, this is not what they want to see out of Washington, D.C. for the rest of the world, some of whom may or may not understand our system of government. But, you know, and I'm talking about Israel, when you talk about a nation that hasn't been in existence very long in the grand scheme of things, 1948, and there are legitimately people around the world who question Israel's right to exist, then that type of talk from members of Congress plays into the very notion of whether Israel has a right to exist and to protect herself and her citizenry. And so that to me is what's concerning.

We don't, you know, free speech is free speech. And people have a right to say what they want to say, especially the 435 elected members of the House of Representatives. representatives and the 100 members of the Senate. But words matter. I think about that every time I'm giving a speech, making remarks, issuing a statement that words definitely matter. And as leaders, and I think everybody here who's an elected member, there's certainly a leader, you've got a responsibility to lead appropriately and correctly.

Absolutely. Absolutely. One specific incident that I want to get your view on is in February and in March of 2019 when Congresswoman Omar made statements that were widely condemned by anti-Semitic. The response in the House was to draft up a resolution and that resolution became more and more watered down until it was a sort of generalized statement against hate as a concept. I guess it seems so odd to me that they couldn't just come out and say anti-Semitism is a problem. Why do you think that was a sort of generalized statement against hate as a concept? Why do you think that was a sort of a sort of? Yeah. Well, if I can't, I'm going to give you a little bit of background because this is truly a decision that in a vote that I really had to think about. So you're exactly right. At that point in time, in 2019, the Democrats control the House of Representatives. So they get to decide what comes to the floor and gets voted on by me and the other congressman and what doesn't. And so. So when those remarks were made by a member of Congress, we were hearing talk that there was going to be some type of statement, some type of resolution coming from the entire House of Representatives that was going to condone anti-Semitism. And the vote was going to come up, I believe it was on a Thursday. And I remember talking to members of my staff because we had not seen the actual resolution that we were going to. going to be voting on. And literally, about 30 minutes before the vote, we got the text. And I predicted that it would be watered down to condone a bunch of things, not solely anti-Semitism, which was the

reason that so many Republicans and Democrats were mad about these anti-Semitic remarks, but it would include everything. So I'm literally walking to the floor, and I'm thinking, was surely. I mean, we everybody abhorred statements made about racism, racist remarks, certainly anti-Semitic

remarks, but this was supposed, this vote, this resolution was supposed to be only about anti-Semitism. And I made the decision. I voted, I voted for the resolution, which talked about that all

all these types of statements against anybody for race, religion, what have you, were completely unwarranted. But it was absolutely watered down by Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership so that they could make sure to get the votes of those on the far, far left, that unfortunately, I think say things about Jewish people and about the state of Israel, it shouldn't be said by a member of Congress. Absolutely. I want to move on to an incident that you alluded to briefly at the beginning of this interview,

which was that shooting at the synagogue in Texas, which was just horribly tragic in our hearts go out to those people who lost lives and lost loved ones in that incident. But I guess this is something that happens in America. And I guess what is the American response to it? What does Congress do to make sure these things don't happen? Well, a number of things. One is the type of talk that we've been talking about about this interview, That cannot happen, neither on the floor of the House of Representatives or from a member of Congress. Because, again, if a member of Congress makes those types of statements, that feeds into that mentality.

And in a way, this may not be the right term, but it becomes acceptable. And we've got to push back on that. And so, in my opinion, and go back to 2019 for a moment, maybe that member should have been disciplined. I mean, we've been talking about a resolution. Maybe they should have been disciplined. Maybe the response is, I'm going to play the what-if game. Let's say that my party, the Republican Party, takes back the House of Representatives in November of 2022. there's been a precedent sent by the Democrats this term to remove Republican members from certain committees.

Well, you've got one member that you've talked about who's on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Right. Maybe she doesn't deserve or shouldn't be placed on that committee. So if Republicans take back the House of Representatives, maybe if you made anti-Semitic remarks in the in the past, you shouldn't serve on a committee dealing with foreign affairs. And that sense of signal. The other thing I think we have to do for exactly the reasons that you cited is we've got to give law enforcement, federal, state, and local the tools and the resources that they need

to combat anti-Semitism. And these crimes, they need to be prosecuted very vigorously, my opinion, by federal officials. Do you think that's happening at the moment? I think there's a lot more that can be done. And I again, talking about Collierville. I think it was apparent to anybody that was following the news that day that it was based on anti-Semitism and it was a hate crime. The president, when he made his initial remarks, wouldn't go there, wouldn't condone it as a hate crime and anti-Semitic. And later on, he did. The president has the power of the bully pulpit.

And whoever the president is, they've got an obligation, especially as it relates to what happened in Collegoville, to call it out for what it is. And he didn't do it immediately. And I think that's unfortunate. Now, I want to follow up on something you said a little bit earlier. You said that there has been a precedent set by the opposition party, the Democrats, to remove members from committees if they feel like they've done something wrong. Are you saying you would be maybe if in favor if the Republicans were to retake the House

of using that strategy on Ilhan Omar or other members of Congress who have made anti-Semitic statements? Well, look, I mean, the Democrats have set the precedent to do that, rightly or I think wrongly. It's always been in the purview of whatever party you're in for the leadership, if you will, to assign committee assignments. And the Democrats for the first time in our history have removed Republican members from committees. You didn't ask me this. If I were in the Democratic leadership, number one, I never would have put some of the people on the person on the member on the committee. in the first place.

And secondly, after she made the comments, I would have stripped her of the committee assignment. And neither of those things happened. I think now that the Democrats have laid down the gauntlet, they've given Republicans if, in fact, we take back the majority of the House this year, which I think we will to look at the Democrats' committee assignments. Absolutely. Absolutely. One of the things that I'm curious, too, as your role as a representative, is that legislation is such a crucial part of what you do. So let's say you are given the opportunity to draft legislation to say anti-Semitism is a focus.

Here's how we can legislatively combat it. What do you write down? Yeah. Well, in fact, I did do that in my very first term. We worked on a bill that was passed almost not quite unanimously in the House and the Senate, but almost, that made it a felony to attack a religious place of worship, whether it's a church, synagogue, mosque. I'm not talking about the people.

I'm talking about the structure. It was not a felony before. Interesting. You call whomever, and you say, I'm going to blow up this church or this synagogue. Before this law was passed, that I sponsor. in 2017, it was not a felony. Today, that's a felony. I'm a former United States attorney, was the chief prosecutor for my area in West Tennessee. I used all the tools in my toolbox to go after the bad guys. The bill that I just talked about that became law that President Trump signed

is a tool the prosecutors can use to go after these, these bad guys. guys to make it to make it a felony. So I think right now there are there there are good laws on the books that law enforcement can use in our federal prosecutors to go after these people and they they need to be directed by the Department of Justice to do that. So right now as we sit here today with with the Biden administration and the House and the Senate and Democrat hands, the the Attorney General needs to be empowered to use all these tools to do it. If there's divided government in 2023, a Democrat in the White House, Republicans controlling either the House and or the Senate to make sure that the administration does use those tools.

And if the Attorney General or the U.S. attorney come to me and say, Congressman, why don't we look at doing this to combat anti-Heastern? anti-Semitism, then I'm certainly going to, I'm going to work on legislation to try to accomplish that. Sure. Now, was there bipartisan support when you passed that bill in your first term? Yeah, and I'm very proud about that because there was bipartisan support. You know, just like anything else, as you can imagine, when you work on legislation, it's not always clean. And you go back and forth on language. My point is it's not easy.

Maybe it shouldn't be easy, but it's not. There was bipartisan support, not unanimous support, but bipartisan support to get it done. And we had good bipartisan co-sponsors. I do want to make that absolutely clear because there were Democratic co-sponsors and Republican co-sponsors of that bill. Do you feel as if, say, in 2022, you were to reintroduce something similar to that, it would receive the same. amount of bipartisan support? You know, I do. Again, we don't want to throw a blanket over everybody in the other party and say that they

feel the way that some of these members do that you referenced earlier because there are plenty that do not. And my opinion is they're stifled some of those Democratic members by their own leadership. those few have an outsized voice and unfortunately their voice is louder than likely the majority in their party. Absolutely. One of the things we've also discussed a little bit is Israel and how the state of Israel is a frequent target of anti-Semitic attacks. So my question I always ask about this is, is it acceptable to criticize the state of Israel and not make it anti-Semitic? Is that a possibility or is all criticism of Israel anti-Semitic?

Well, at least the criticism I've seen, it lends itself to anti-Semitism. At least what we've heard recently. And I've had the opportunity, if you will, to go to Israel on a bipartisan trip like a lot of other members of Congress. And this goes a little bit beyond what you just asked me. and I think people listening can understand this. It's one thing to read the news, to see the news, to do your own research about what's happening in a certain part of the world. It's another thing to go there and visit and talk to officials and kick the tires, if you will. I think that the people who in this country who have not had the opportunity to visit Israel might.

might not be able to appreciate from a size perspective how small, if you will, and surrounded Israel is by its neighbors. And how close some of the bad actors are to the borders of Israel. And so you've got, you know, the converse of it is, is that if, God forbid, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, you. Israel ceased to exist, failed to exist, you've lost democracy in the Middle East. And then it becomes a conflict, a huge conflict that ultimately this country gets further engaged in. So we've got a duty to protect Israel. We've got an obligation to protect Israel. And at least in the last several years that I've seen, I don't think anybody paying attention to the news.

views, the criticism, if there is criticism of Israel, it is either anti-Semitic or directly leads to anti-Semitism. What are your views on the BDS movement, the boycott divest sanction movement? Yeah, and that's something that's been debated on the floor of the House of Representatives also, and that the Democratic leadership has had to push back on. And I think it's unfortunate that we're we even have to talk about it in this nation. But it exists. It's a minority.

But the longer the minority gets to talk about it, my concern is that you have other people who begin to latch on to it. And certainly that's dangerous to Israel as well. Sure. So Congress's role with our relationship with Israel, where do you see our congressional government's relationship with Israel going? You know, if you go backwards to the Trump administration, my opinion, President Trump is the strongest president that, the United States president that Israel has known. And certainly President Trump was very committed. I go back to about two months before the 2020 election. I was on the White House lawn for the signing of the Abraham Accords.

And there were two thoughts that I was thinking about as these documents were being signed, Israel, UAE, Bahrain. Number one is it was truly historic. to I'm not sure that any other president other than Donald Trump could have gotten it accomplished by who he was, the force of his personality, all those things. Sure. And I really applaud President Trump and Jared Kushner and everybody that worked to get that done. By the same token, again, if you're in another part of the world,

And you saw that and you saw the United States commitment to Israel then and you compare it to now. I think you probably question the United States commitment on some level. There are certainly strong congressional leaders who will advocate the strong support of Israel. But you don't see that level coming from the administration. for whatever reason. And that concerns me. Let's follow up on that topic. What is America's role in fighting anti-Semitism around the world?

We should lead in fighting anti-Semitism. We're the world's greatest democracy. People around the world look to us to see, as they experiment with democracy and their nations, what works. And we've got to continue to lead. And so when you talk about leading, you're talking about from the administration, whoever's president, and at the congressional level. And at the administrative level, they do not seem to be as fully committed as the Trump administration. At least that's the perception that other people around the world have.

But we've got to be the absolute leader in fighting anti-Semitism. And what does that look like? Well, it looks like words and actions. It looks like making sure that we continue to work with Israel on peace accords like the Abraham Accords. It looks like that we fund Iron Dome to the extent that Israel needs funding. You know, it was just not a year ago that Israel had hundreds and thousands of rockets fired upon it by enemies, and the Iron Dome protected Israel. So we've got to make sure that we support it. We had this debate about funding the Iron Dome just several months ago.

And the overwhelming majority of Republicans supported it, I think the majority of Democrats supported it, but you had a loud minority that opposed it. So when you see that debate and you're in another country about whether the United States wants to help Israel fund and be able to employ Iron Dome, what do you think? That's rhetorical, but what do you think? And I think the answer is explanatory. Right. Well, I want to follow up on that because those all sound like supporting Israel. Is there other things that America should be doing to fight anti-Semitism more generally across the globe? Like, I lived in France for quite a long time, and there was a lot of anti-Semitism against Jews in Paris.

Does America have a responsibility to address those types of issues, not just, in Israel but around the globe. Well, we've got to, look, we've got to be able to defend. We've got to be able to talk loudly and condone those types of actions. Certainly, if they're in the United States and in other parts of the world, wherever you fall on the issue, if you're listening, can you imagine a world without Israel as we know it today? and what that does to peace and security in the Middle East and what that does to peace and security in the United States. You know, we are hearing a lot about, as we just memorialized, if you will, the 75th anniversary of the ending of World War II and the Holocaust. We cannot forget what happened.

We cannot forget what happened. Then we also need to remember that anti-Semitism has existed for a long, long time. And it may never completely go away, but unless our leadership, and I'm a leader, unless we work to protect those who are subjected to anti-Semitism, it will continue to exist. and it will perpetuate. And that's dangerous. That's dangerous to everybody. Before we wrap up, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that there was an incident in the nation's capital very, very recently at Union Station, where a twice-deported illegal immigrant spray-painted swastikas all over the building. How does it make you feel when you see swastikas in the nation's capital so brazenly displayed on one of our buildings?

A lot of emotions. Angry, disappointed, sad, bewildered, all wrapped up into one. And I think that's probably the way a lot of people, a lot of people think and a lot of people feel. The fact of the matter is that illustrates it. Anti-Semitism continues to exist. It continues to perpetuate. And, you know, we've got these. battles, whether it's on social media involving free speech and what is the right balance,

where do you, where do you land? But unless we aggressively talk about and against anti-Semitism, it's going to continue to grow in this nation and other places in the world. I was elected in 2016 to Congress, same year Donald Trump was elected. And the one thing that we know about Donald Trump was he spoke very loudly. And you never had to guess where he was on any given issue. He spoke very loudly about anti-Semitism and about Israel's right to exist and our relationship with Israel. And this president needs to speak with the same force, the same authenticity in order to combat it, at least in the year 2022.

Absolutely. That was Congressman David Kustoff, who represents Tennessee's eighth congressional district. Congressman, it was a pleasure having you on. Thank you, I really appreciate the opportunity to be with you today. And that'll do it for today's episode.

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