Ranking Member Raskin’s Opening Statement at Subcommittee Hearing on Trump’s Weakening of the U.S.’s Ability to Combat Antisemitism
Washington, D.C. (June 24, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, delivered opening remarks at the Subcommittee on Oversight hearing on how Republicans are weaponizing antisemitism for political gain while defunding the very agencies charged with fighting hate crimes and domestic extremism.
Below are Ranking Member Raskin’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at today’s hearing.
WATCH Ranking Member Raskin’s opening statement.
Ranking Member Jamie Raskin
Subcommittee on Oversight
Hearing on “Rising Threat: America’s Battle Against Antisemitic Terror”
June 24, 2025
Thank you, Chairman Van Drew, and thanks to the witnesses for being with us today.
Antisemitism is “the world’s oldest hatred,” a form of racism that has mutated in ever more dangerous ways over the centuries. From religious persecution based on allegations of deicide to Medieval blood libels to Russian pogroms to Nazi Eugenics and the Holocaust, to contemporary anti-Zionist antisemitism holding all Jews everywhere accountable for the actions and policies of the Israeli government and imputing monolithic ethnic thinking and collective guilt, antisemitism is a perennial threat not only to millions of Jews all over the world but to reason, tolerance and prospects for human progress.
Although America has been a safe home for religious minorities including American Jews, antisemitism has also had a dark and newly resurgent career here. America has seen plenty of outbreaks of antisemitic violence and hatred: the framing and lynching of Leo Frank in 1913, which some antisemites are defending to this day; the official refusal to accept ships filled with Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution; neo-Nazis at the “Unite the Right” Rally in Charlottesville in 2017 chanting “Jews will not replace us”; the mass murder of 11 Jews worshiping at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh by right-wing extremist Robert Bowers who promoted the Great Replacement Theory; the antisemitic arson attempt targeting Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and his family on the first night of Passover; the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers outside of the Capital Jewish Museum here in Washington, D.C.; and a firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado at a gathering calling for the return of Hamas-held Israeli hostages.
Since Hamas’ vicious terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed more than 1,200 people, and the subsequent bloody war in Gaza, in which more than 57,000 Palestinians and Israelis have been killed, the number of antisemitic attacks and incidents around the world have exploded.
This resurgent antisemitism has drawn bipartisan condemnation in Congress, including in a resolution by Mr. Van Drew that we were all proud to support.
But now is the time to act to counter antisemitic violence and incitement and not just denounce it. Yet, I have little faith in this administration’s willingness to do that. And I am not alone. Nearly two-thirds of all Jewish voters disapprove of “the job Donald Trump is doing to fight antisemitism.” This is not surprising for several reasons, the first being that President Trump has populated his own administration with antisemites and fans of neo-Nazis.
President Trump has nominated people like Ed Martin and Paul Ingrassia to top level positions in his administration despite their documented support for, and close relationships with, neo-Nazis and antisemites. Ed Martin, Trump’s once-nominee for the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, has enthusiastically embraced Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a neo-Nazi who has painted a Hitler mustache on himself and repeatedly told coworkers “Hitler should have finished the job” against the Jews. Martin called Hale-Cusanelli an “amazing guy” and a “great friend.” Though Martin tried to cover up and minimize their friendship, Trump was eventually forced to withdraw his nomination to become the U.S. Attorney and named him instead the U.S. Pardon Attorney, which does not require Senate confirmation.
Other people in his administration have shared antisemitic posts on social media. Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson posted on X that “The Great Replacement isn’t a right-wing conspiracy theory... it’s reality.” Antisemitism taskforce head Leo Terrell shared a post by prominent neo-Nazi Patrick Casey saying that Trump “can revoke someone’s jew card.” And who can ever forget Elon Musk’s shocking fascist salutes?
Moreover, President Trump himself has a similarly disturbing history of antisemitic actions and statements. He invited over for dinner to Mar-a-Lago Nick Fuentes, a vicious Neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier, and self-proclaimed Hitler-lover Ye. He saw “very fine people” on “both sides” of an antisemitic riot. He has claimed that prominent Jews in our government were bad Jews, called Senator Schumer “not Jewish anymore” and repeatedly referred to him as a “Palestinian,” including just this morning, and said that “any Jewish person” who doesn’t vote for him “should have their heads examined.”
So when Trump claims that he is actively combating antisemitism, we know there is a lot more to the picture than meets the eye.
He has thoroughly destroyed the infrastructure within our government to detect, prevent, and prosecute domestic extremism, hate crimes, and antisemitic attacks.
In just a few months, the DOJ, FBI, and DHS have fired experienced domestic terrorism experts and deleted key offices that monitor and prevent terrorist attacks and racial hate crimes.
On the day after President Trump took office, the DOJ demoted senior career attorneys in the National Security Division and Criminal Division and reassigned them to a new “Sanctuary Cities” Task Force. Nearly all left DOJ shortly thereafter, draining the government of decades of counterterrorism and national security experience.
The DOJ has slashed its Civil Rights Division, which is charged with prosecuting hate crimes. It has illegally gutted the Community Relations Service, which has been a crucial tool for countering hate crimes by working directly with communities around the country.
The FBI, too, has also cut staffing in its domestic terrorism unit and has stopped using a national database that tracks domestic terrorism and hate crimes. Similarly, the Department of Education cut in half the Office for Civil Rights—the agency tasked with addressing discrimination and hostile learning environments, including antisemitic acts and language on college campuses.
The Trump Administration froze or canceled community safety, violence intervention and terrorism prevention programs across the country. It is ending a terrorism prevention program focused on “lone-wolf” attacks—attacks like the ones we just suffered in Boulder and outside of the Capital Jewish Museum here in D.C.—because the program “does not align with [the Administration’s] priorities.”
DHS has also frozen or cut grants to programs supported by the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, or CP3. Since 2020, CP3 has helped prevent more than 1,000 violent plots in what national security experts have called “pioneering” work with “enormous” payoff. Ignoring this impressive track record, the Trump Administration gutted CP3, fired 75% of its staff, and cut or froze tens of millions of dollars slated for violence prevention.
It even appointed a 22-year-old with zero national security expertise to run what is left of CP3. It is shocking that someone who graduated from college last year would be tasked with leading the fight against the rising tide of extremist political violence in America, although in fairness he did do Model United Nations his senior year. Other DHS-supported programs, including the Non-Profit Security Grant Program, which helps “Jewish institutions install security cameras, train staff and add protective barriers,” have also been left without sufficient funding.
The decimation of counterterrorism and hate crime capabilities is strikingly reckless in today’s heightened threat landscape. Even as DHS demands over half a billion dollars more for immigration enforcement and border security, it appears to be neglecting its basic responsibilities to monitor and prevent hate crimes and domestic terrorism. This negligence has been accompanied by a spike in shocking antisemitic attacks across America.
Beyond countenancing antisemitism in its own ranks and dismantling the federal infrastructure that opposes antisemitic and racist violence, the Administration has also repeatedly invoked fighting antisemitism as a vague and arbitrary all-purpose excuse for eroding constitutional rights and imposing authoritarian control.
Seizing control of student admissions, faculty hiring, and curricular content at colleges and universities has nothing to do with protecting Jewish students. Conducting ideological purges in the name of the Jewish community exposes Jews to recrimination and revenge.
When the government uses “fighting antisemitism” as the pretext for snatching graduate students off the streets and jailing them for exercise of their First Amendment rights, this ploy practically invites people to blame Jews for the erosion of their civic freedom and constitutional rights.
When government deploys antisemitism as the rationale for canceling hundreds of millions of dollars of federal research grants for treating cancer, curing cystic fibrosis, and conquering other debilitating diseases, that certainly does not make Jews safer from antisemitism. Rather it makes Jews the scapegoat again, the reason why the public is losing progress in science and health care.
If the Trump Administration truly wants to fight antisemitism, it should begin by firing the antisemites it has hired. It can then restore and rebuild the anti-terror and anti-hate crime infrastructure it has demolished. And then it can call off the sinister effort to dress authoritarian offenses up in the language of opposing antisemitism.
The late Jewish leader Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks said, “antisemitism is about the inability of a group to make space for difference. And because we are all different, the hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews…Antisemitism is the world’s most reliable early warning sign of a major threat to freedom, humanity and the dignity of difference. It matters to all of us. Which is why we must fight it together.”
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.