GOP Sen. John Kennedy Tells Activist Arab-American Leader She Should ‘Hide Your Head In A Bag’ At Hearing

On Tuesday, Sen. John Kennedy (R-Lousiana) repeatedly made offensive comments that Arab American activist Maya Berry is a Hamas supporter when she testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on hate crimes.

Kennedy asked Berry, “You are the executive director of the Arab American Institute, are you not?” She agreed that she was a Democratic activist, to which Kennedy further questioned, “You support Hamas, do you not?”

His question elicited gasps and laughs of shock from the crowd. Berry calmly capitalized on his offensive statement, “Senator, oddly enough, I’m going to say thank you for that question, because it demonstrates the purpose of our hearing today in a very effective way.” Unfortunately, the rest of her statement was lost as she was cut off when Kennedy demanded a yes or no answer.

Berry responded, “Hamas is a foreign terrorist organization that I do not support, but you asking the executive director of the Arab American Institute that question very much puts the focus on the issue of hate in our country.”

Kennedy continued on, “You support Hezbollah, too, don’t you?” 

Berry barely said, “I find this line of questioning extraordinarily disappointing,” before Kennedy cut her off, “Is that a no?”

Berry responded definitively, “I don’t support violence, whether it’s Hezbollah or Hamas or any other entity that involves it, so no, sir.”

Kennedy said, “You just can’t bring yourself to say no, can you? You just can’t do it.”

Berry noted that it was “exceptionally disappointing” that Kennedy was looking at an Arab American and assuming support for Hamas.

Kennedy retorted, “You know what’s disappointing to me? You can’t bring yourself to say don’t support UNWRA, you don’t support Hamas, you don’t support Hezbollah and you don’t support Iran. You should hide your head in a bag.”

His words prompted shouts of anger from the audience.

Asked after the hearing if there was anything about the exchange with Kennedy she wanted to note, Berry said, “It’s regrettable that I, as I sit here, have experienced the very issues that we’re attempting to deal with today.”

She expanded, “This has been regrettably a real disappointment, but very much an indication of the danger to our democratic institutions that we’re in now.”