Department of Hometown Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas grew irate with Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) line of questioning at a listening to Tuesday, calling his words “despicable” and “odious.”

Hawley wondered Mayorkas a few DHS officer who posted pictures to social media of a Hamas paraglider with a machine gun, and the caption “Free Palestine.”

“Mr. Secretary, what’s occurring right here? Is this conventional of people that work at DHS? This is an asylum & immigration officer who is posting these, frankly, pro-genocidal slogans and pictures on the day that Israelis are being slaughtered in their beds. What have you accomplished about this?” Hawley asked.

As Mayorkas tried to answer, Hawley demanded to grasp, “Has she been fired?”

Mayorkas answered that the officer had been positioned on administrative go away and that he might no longer touch upon an “ongoing personnel matter.”

Hawley then asked whether or not the officer “adjudicated any circumstances involving Israelis seeking asylum in this united states of america?” Again, Mayorkas mentioned he wouldn’t comment on a personnel topic.

“Has she admitted, opposite to regulation, people who should now not be on this united states, or denied Jewish refugees, whose genocide she’s advocating, asylum that they deserve?”

“Same solution,” Mayorkas spoke back, relating to his refusal to comment on a personnel matter.

Hawley continued:

HAWLEY: I will be able to’t believe that you would come to this committee figuring out about this! I’ve written to you about it. You already know all about it! And also you come right here, and you’re unwilling to respond to, and recommend that it’s mistaken of me to even ask the question! Somewhat frankly, Mr. Secretary, I believe that your performance is despicable and I believe the truth that you’re no longer willing to supply answers to this committee is actually atrocious.

MAYORKAS: Mr. Chairman, may I?

CHAIRMAN: In the event you’d prefer to have a minute to respond —

MAYORKAS: Oh, I might, and I’m no longer certain I’ll restrict it to 60 seconds.

CHAIRMAN: That’s superb.

MAYORKAS: Primary, what I found despicable was the implication that — this language, particularly odious — in truth can be emblematic of the sentiments of the 260,000 women and men of the Department of Fatherland Security, primary.

Number two, Sen. Hawley takes an adversarial technique to me on this question, and perhaps he doesn’t know my own background. In all probability he does no longer be aware of that I’m a toddler of a Holocaust survivor. Perhaps he does now not recognize that my mom misplaced all of her household at the hands of the Nazis. And so, I to find his adversarial tone to be completely misplaced. I find it to be disrespectful of me and my heritage. And I do not are expecting an apology, however I did need to say what I just articulated.

Hawley then requested the chairman if he might respond, but was once denied.

Hawley has a history of sparring with Mayorkas at Senate committee hearings, once asking, “Why must you no longer be impeached?”

Watch the video above by means of C-Span.

The post Mayorkas Fires Back at Sen. Hawley’s ‘Despicable’ Criticism: ‘I’m a Kid of a Holocaust Survivor’ first regarded on Mediaite.