In the midst of Donald Trump spewing lies demonizing Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio causing a spike in hate and bomb threats in the small midwestern town — Republican Senator John Kennedy opened up a new front in the GOP’s war on non-white people. This latest assault came Tuesday in the form of baseless and vile accusations of terrorism by Kennedy against a leader in the Arab and Muslim American community. Ironically, Kennedy’s assault occurred during a Senate hearing to combat this very type of bigotry.
Even before Tuesday’s exchange in the Senate hearing titled, "A Threat to Justice Everywhere: Stemming the Tide of Hate Crimes in America," Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, had already pushed back against people like GOP Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina who objected to addressing hate crimes against Arab and Muslims—demanding instead the sole focus be on anti-Semitism. Apparently the fact that Muslims and Arabs in 2023 experienced a record number of hate crimes—including the murder of six-year-old Palestinian American Wadea Al-Fayoume in Oct. 2023 by a man yelling anti-Palestinian comments-didn’t merit concern by Graham. Durbin rightfully remarked, “What we are trying to do is identify a problem in America that extends beyond the Jewish population, to the Arab population, to the Palestinian population,” adding, “All of those hate crimes are unacceptable." Republicans, for their part, did not acknowledge the killing of Al-Fayoume, whose mother was in attendance for the hearing.
