Latest news with #congressionalhearing
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Congressional Candidate, 27, Forcibly Removed from Hearing and Arrested After Criticizing Texas Republicans: 'I'm Not Finished!'
Isaiah Martin, who spent a day in jail, later confirmed the charges were dropped and said he'd 'do it again for the people of Texas" A congressional candidate was forcibly removed from a hearing at the Texas State Capitol and arrested this week, after going over an apparent two-minute time limit to speak as he delivered a statement in opposition to Texas Republicans' redistricting efforts. Congressional District 18 candidate Isaiah Martin, 27, attended a hearing held by the Texas House Congressional Redistricting Committee on Thursday, July 24, when he offered his thoughts on the redistricting efforts in question, calling it 'illegal gerrymandering." According to Austin ABC affiliate KVUE, Gov. Greg Abbott added discussion of a proposed redrawing of congressional districts to the agenda following pressure from the Trump administration. Per The Hill, the redrawing of the state's maps could give the GOP an advantage in the 2026 midterms, as KVUE reported the state's constitution allows the maps to be redrawn at the discretion of both the governor and the Legislature — although it is rare to be done mid-decade. "Many of you that are Republicans, and I'm looking at you, you understand the game. You gotta get Trump's endorsement," Martin said at the beginning of his remarks, before his arrest. "That's the name of the game to be a Republican nowadays. And you know very clearly that Trump told every single one of you that he needs five seats." After he continued past an apparent allotted two-minute speaking time, Rep. Cody Vasut asked the sergeant-at-arms to remove Martin from the hearing. Footage from the scene, which was later shared by Martin's campaign on X, shows the candidate telling Republicans they have "no shame" as his microphone is removed from him. Martin then told the committee that "history might not remember you at all," as two men began to pull him out of the state capitol — with one man appearing to restrain Martin by lying on top of him. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) later confirmed, per KVUE and CBS Austin, that Martin was charged with disrupting a meeting, resisting arrest and criminal trespassing. His arrest took place around 7 p.m. local time, and he was later booked in Travis County Jail. His charges were dropped, per CBS Austin and an update that was shared on Martin's social media. A DPS spokesperson told KVUE that the arrest took place after Martin "refused to obey requests from committee members and subsequent orders from DPS to leave a committee hearing at the Texas State Capitol." The DPS did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for confirmation on July 25. Per KVUE, Martin spent over 24 hours in jail. Martin's brother confirmed in a statement on X that "all charges" against him had been dropped, before Martin shared in a message of his own hours later that he was put in custody for a day because Republicans "were mad I had the AUDACITY to call them cowards to their faces." "They did this because I had the audacity to speak up, and you know what? I'm gonna continue to have that audacity," he said. "Because strongly worded letters won't get us out of this mess. It takes speaking truth to power no matter what the consequences are." Speaking with CBS Austin following his release, Martin reiterated that he would "do it again for the people of Texas." Read the original article on People
CBS News
15-07-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
CUNY chancellor grilled over antisemitism on campus at congressional hearing
The chancellor of the City University of New York was one of three university heads grilled over antisemitism on campus during a heated congressional hearing Tuesday. CUNY Chancellor Dr. Félix V. Matos Rodríguez went before the Committee on Education and Workforce along with Georgetown University Interim President Dr. Robert M. Groves and Dr. Rich Lyons, chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley. The congressional hearing follows hearings with other area school leaders, including then-New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks and then-Columbia University President Dr. Minouche Shafik. The hearing analyzed what it identified as five potential breeding grounds for antisemitism — faculty and student groups, faculty unions, Middle East studies, foreign funding and DEI policies. "The violence, fear and alienation felt by Jewish students is at its core a result of administrators and their staff lacking the moral clarity to condemn and punish antisemitism," Committee Chairman Tim Walberg said. "Antisemitism has no place at CUNY," Rodríguez said. "Our commitment to the safety of the members of our Jewish community, and to our entire community, is non-negotiable." Like colleges across the country, CUNY has seen a rise in clashes between students and enforcement following the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel, including police making 25 arrests following the building of an encampment on campus during spring break of 2024. According to CUNY leadership, the school had 68 complaints of antisemitism in 2024, and 16 so far this year. New York Rep. Elise Stefanik did not hold back against the chancellor during the hearing. "We are working with the New York City Police Department—" Rodríguez said. "So no disciplinary action has been taken by CUNY? Is that correct?" Stefanik said. "Again we will investigate any action—" Rodríguez said. "So an investigation but no actual action," Stefanik said. Afterwards, the representative called for CUNY's chancellor to be fired. "The reality is CUNY and New York state's Democrat leadership have failed," Stefanik said. Rabbi Joe Potasnik, a member of CUNY's Advisory Council on Jewish Life, says he has faith in leadership moving forward. "The real test is not what is said at the hearing, it's what is done after the hearing," he said. "There's no instant cure, but you do want leadership that says I'm with you, I'm gonna walk with you during this very painful period."
The Guardian
06-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Jewish faculty decry Republican panel members ahead of antisemitism hearing
A number of Republican legislators set to grill university presidents in a congressional hearing on antisemitism this week are associated with calls for Jews to convert to Christianity, have quoted Adolf Hitler, or have reportedly threatened to burn a synagogue to the ground. A group of Haverford professors, most of them Jewish, has raised concerns about the legislators, pointing to statements they have made in the past and antisemitic incidents in their districts that the professors say they have not forcefully condemned. On Wednesday, the US House committee on education and workforce will question the presidents of Haverford College, in Pennsylvania, DePaul University, in Chicago, and California Polytechnic State University, in San Luis Obispo, in a reprieve of contentious showdowns between legislators and university administrators that last year played a part in the resignations of several university presidents. In a memo published on Tuesday and shared exclusively with the Guardian, a group of Jewish faculty at Haverford have questioned the credibility of several members of the committee. The faculty have requested anonymity to avoid retaliation. In the memo, they write that the committee's chair, Republican representative Tim Walberg of Michigan, is associated with the Moody Bible Institute, which, according to the memo, 'trains students to convert Jewish people to Christianity'. Representative Mark Harris of North Carolina, it notes, once said that until Jews and Muslims accept Jesus Christ 'there'll never be peace in their soul or peace in their city'. The faculty also condemned committee member Mary Miller of Illinois, who in a speech outside the US Capitol the day before the January 6 attack, quoted Hitler and said he was 'right on one thing' when he said that whoever 'has the youth has the future'. (Miller later apologized.) Pro-Palestinian activists at a protest at DePaul University in Chicago on Monday. Photograph: Chicago Tribune/TNS The memo notes that several members of the committee hail from districts with a history of neo-Nazi incidents. It points to Appalachian State University in North Carolina – in a district committee member Virginia Foxx has represented for two decades – where, in recent years, antisemitic groups have distributed promotional materials, scratched swastikas and racist slurs on to the car of a Jewish student, and spray-painted swastikas and covered campus spaces with antisemitic stickers. The university, the memo notes, is not among those facing congressional investigations, which are instead focused on pro-Palestinian speech. The memo also criticises representative Mark Messmer of Indiana for making 'no visible statements critical of Nazi and white supremacist antisemitism' in his district and state, and New York's Elise Stefanik for backing a political candidate who praised Hitler as 'the kind of leader we need today'. (The candidate, Carl Paladino, apologized but suggested that his comment was taken out of 'context'.) And it calls out Representative Randy Fine of Florida, a Republican Jewish congressman who reportedly threatened to burn his own synagogue 'to the ground' for hiring an LGBTQ+ staff member. The Guardian has reached out to all of the committee members named in this story for comment. It's not the first time Jewish scholars have accused those leading the fight over antisemitism on campuses of being compromised on the issue. In March, Jewish Voice for Peace's academic council published a report arguing that Project Esther – a rightwing blueprint for undermining pro-Palestine solidarity in the US – 'repeats and fortifies antisemitic tropes' by promoting the antisemitic conspiracy theory that powerful Jews are controlling social justice movements. At Haverford, Jewish students and faculty have signed separate statements accusing the committee of 'weaponising our pain and anguish' and saying that their voices 'have absolutely not been represented in the current public discussion of antisemitism'. 'We reject the premise of the hearings as being at all concerned with antisemitism,' said Lindsay Reckson, a literature professor and one of the authors of the faculty statement. 'They are political theater aimed at intimidating college administrations into sacrificing their commitment to academic freedom, and an effort to silence and police pro-Palestinian voices on campus – including many Jewish voices.' The memo comes as Jewish scholars and students have increasingly condemned the Trump administration's actions in the name of fighting antisemitism. Tim Walberg, the committee chair, right, and Bobby Scott, the Democratic ranking member. Photograph: Bill Clark/CQ-In a letter to Haverford's president, Wendy Raymond, ahead of her congressional testimony, the committee references 'antisemitic incidents' on campus, including the disruption of an antisemitism workshop by the Anti-Defamation League last October, and a talk, the same month, which the committee says 'whistleblowers' reported as promoting 'a culture of antisemitic discrimination'. What the letter doesn't say is that the protest against the ADL was staged entirely by Jewish students and that the lecture was by Rebecca Alpert – a rabbi as well as a professor of religion. 'To them, Jewish students means Zionist Jewish students,' said Ellie Baron, a senior at Haverford. Alpert, a self-described anti-Zionist, told the Guardian that she was 'astonished' the committee described her talk – about the difference between Judaism and Zionism – as antisemitic. 'In my mind, it's antisemitic to call a scholarly presentation by a rabbi antisemitism,' she said. The conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism championed in congressional investigations has also muddled discussion over real antisemitism, Jewish faculty warn. 'It's not that antisemitism doesn't exist. We know it does,' said Joshua Moses, an anthropology professor at Haverford, who said he experienced it personally but stressed that the suffering in Gaza and the arrests of foreign students for their pro-Palestinian advocacy are more pressing concerns at the moment. 'If there's antisemitism, I want to hear about it, let's figure out how to address it, but let's also look at who's most at risk and who's most suffering at this point.' He added: 'I don't feel unsafe. But if I did, this congressional committee is not the place I would go to.'
