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Democrat Hank Johnson draws Holocaust comparison while blasting deportations
House Judiciary Committee member Hank Johnson, R-Ga., made waves when he made allusions to the Holocaust while obliquely criticizing the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and the arrest of Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan.
Johnson was speaking during a Wednesday committee markup meeting when he began paraphrasing German preacher Martin Niemöller’s confession as someone who once supported the Nazi Party until it was too late to object to its mounting atrocities.
«You know, first, they came for the Latinos outside of the Home Depots, trying to get work so that they could feed their families,» Johnson began.
«And I didn’t say anything about it because I’m not a Latino at the Home Depot.»
SENATOR WARNS OF UNCONSTITUTIONAL JUDICIAL OVERREACH AHEAD OF SCOTUS SHOWDOWN
Rep. Henry «Hank» Johnson questions a witness during a hearing. (Getty Images)
«Then they came for the Hispanic-looking folks [with] hats backward with tattoos. And they deported them to El Salvador. And I didn’t say anything about that because I don’t wear my [hat] backward, and I don’t have any tattoos, and I don’t look like a Latino.»
«Then they came for the Latinas at home, taking care of the children. They scooped up the Latinas and the children, some of whom were American citizens, one of whom was receiving treatment for cancer. They swept them up, took them off, and deported them. And I didn’t say anything about it. Because I’m not a Latina. I’m not a little child who’s an American citizen.»
Johnson went on to make the same allusion to students protesting in support of Hamas on campus, who have been another target of the Trump administration.
«They sent jackbooted thugs wearing masks to pick them up, take them thousands of miles away and put them in a private for-profit detention center where they languish at taxpayer expense. And I didn’t say anything about it because I’m not a student on a foreign visa,» Johnson said.
He then noted how Dugan had been arrested for allegedly aiding an illegal immigrant in avoiding federal immigration authorities, saying he did not speak up because he was not a «White female judge.»
«But then they came for me. And I looked around, and there was nobody left because I had remained silent,» he said.
DEM SEN JOINS GROUP OF FAR LEFT LAWMAKERS WHO THINK TRUMP HAS AGAIN COMMITTED IMPEACHABLE OFFENSES
Johnson concluded by noting he paraphrased a poem from Germany, saying it «resonated back then as it does today.»
«It’s important that the people understand what is happening with our constitutional rights in this country. Everyone is entitled to due process, whether or not you are documented or undocumented, whether or you are a citizen or not. You’re entitled to due process.»
He said an amendment up for a vote in the markup sought to affirm that.
An amendment in the meeting record would have prohibited certain funds from being used to remove «an alien in violation of their rights under the Fifth Amendment.»
It was voted down.
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Fox News Digital reached out to Johnson for comment, as well as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, for response.
On X, the official House Judiciary Committee Republican account mocked Johnson’s remarks, writing, «Wow, Hank Johnson just implied that all Latinos hang out at Home Depot.»
Johnson’s penchant for colorful remarks goes back more than a decade to 2010, when he warned then-Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Robert Willard during a House Armed Service Committee hearing on military-buildup plans that Guam could potentially «tip over and capsize» due to overpopulation.
Democrats have recently shifted their comments on Garcia’s case more toward concerns about due process, after Tennessee police video showing a run-in with Garcia allegedly trafficking migrants was released.
Politics,House of Representatives Democrats,Holocaust,Illegal Immigrants,Georgia
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Republicans squabble over Trump spending plan as Fiscal Year 2026 looms: ‘Stay until we pass it’
President Donald Trump is proposing staggering spending cuts.
In his budget request for fiscal year 2026, the president demands that Congress slash an eye-popping 20% of spending which lawmakers allocate each year.
«You’re going to see $150 billion (in cuts) passed in the House and the Senate. That is real money,» said Budget Director Russ Vought on Fox News. «I think for the first time, this budget is not dead on arrival.»
To be clear, the budget which Mr. Trump sent to Capitol Hill is aspirational. All presidential budgets are. It’s what a president proposes that lawmakers – and his administration – aim to spend for the upcoming fiscal year. Congress is still charged with voting on the 12 annual spending bills which fund the government. The 20% cut proposed by President Trump deals with that area of spending.
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The new budget championed by Team Trump features drastic spending cuts. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The Trump administration characterized this blueprint as a «skinny» budget. That’s because it included nothing about Medicare and Medicaid. Those social programs consume exorbitant chunks of federal spending – far exceeding what Congress appropriates each year. Congressional Republicans aim to make alterations of some kind to these programs in their so-called «big, beautiful bill.» Republicans insist those programs won’t endure cuts. But a «cut» is in the eye of the beholder.
«We’re going to move towards a long-term balanced budget. I like how we’re thinking long-term instead of short-term,» said Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., on Fox News.
To be clear, the framework for the GOP’s big, beautiful bill does not balance the budget. In fact, it increases the budget deficit. And Mr. Trump’s budget package doesn’t balance either. There’s no way to understand such a path unless you include Medicare and Medicaid.
But here’s what Mr. Trump’s budget request does do:
It eliminates dollars from every federal department and agency, except the Departments of Transportation and Veterans Affairs. Space programs and NASA are also safe, too.
«This is how you break the Swamp,» declared the House Freedom Caucus. «The FY ‘26 budget is a paradigm shift.»
The president’s proposal knifes the Department of Housing and Urban Development by 40%. It axes the Departments of Labor and Interior by 30%.
TOP SENATE ARMED SERVICES REPUBLICAN SAYS TRUMP OMB’S BUDGET ‘SHREDS TO THE BONE’ MILITARY CAPABILITIES
However, dollars for the Pentagon are essentially flat.
Defense hawks were apoplectic.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., torched Mr. Trump’s outline.
«Trump successfully campaigned on a Peace Through Strength agenda. But his advisers at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) were apparently not listening,» fumed Wicker. «For the defense budget, OMB has requested a fifth year straight of Biden administration funding, leaving military spending flat, which is a cut in real terms.»
Wicker accused OMB of trying to «shred to the bone» the nation’s military.
Some members of Congress, like Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., have rebuked Trump’s proposal for its effective non-adjustment of defense funds. (Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., chairs the Senate defense appropriations panel, charged with funding the Pentagon.
«It is peculiar how much time the President’s advisors spend talking about restoring peace through strength, given how apparently unwilling they’ve been to invest accordingly in the national defense or in other critical instruments of national power,» said McConnell.
«I am very concerned the requested base budget for defense does not reflect a realistic path to building the military capability we need to achieve President Trump’s Peace Through Strength agenda,» said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala.
With friends like these…
TRUMP SLAMS REPUBLICAN ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ OPPOSING BUDGET BILL, PREDICTS MASSIVE US TAX INCREASES IF IT FAILS
Vought fired back at Congressional defense advocates and their allegations that the budget request undercut the military.
«It’s an inaccurate charge. We provide a trillion dollars in national defense spending. 13% increase. We do it in two components,» said Vought. «We use discretionary spending. And then we put in a historic paradigm all of our increases on defense and Homeland Security. We use it in reconciliation so that we only need to use Republican votes. We don’t want Democrats to have the filibuster as a veto to then hijack the appropriations process and say no to the Homeland Security spending.»
Let me fillet that statement for you.
In other words, Vought asserts that some of the funding increases for the Pentagon will come through «budget reconciliation,» the process Republicans are now using to pass the big, beautiful bill. Republicans intend to pass that package with only GOP votes. But if Republicans included that military money in a «regular» appropriations bill, Democrats may demand «parity.» They would insist that non-defense programs score the same increase in exchange for advancing those bills – and voting to overcome a filibuster. So Vought argues his approach keeps Democrats from holding Pentagon dollars hostage in exchange for money targeted toward other programs.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought rebuffed claims that the Trump budget would undercut the military. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
But Democrats are focused on what Republicans may try to do with Medicare and Medicaid. They argue that Republicans are teeing up cuts.
«Hospitals will close. Nursing homes will shut down. Communities will be hurt. And Americans will die,» said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
Republicans insist those programs won’t face cuts.
«The question is, will we be susceptible to the fear-mongering and the false rhetoric that you just heard from the Democrat Minority Leader in the House? And this is the same tired play they run,» said House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, on Fox News. «We will be rewarded because we’re doing this for the sustainability of these programs for the most vulnerable.»
TRUMP SAYS PUBLIC ENTITLEMENTS LIKE SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICAID WON’T BE TOUCHED IN GOP BUDGET BILL
Still, even some remain apprehensive about how the GOP will handle those programs.
«If you want to be in the minority forever, then go ahead and do Medicaid cuts,» said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. «That would be catastrophically stupid.»
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., met President Trump at the White House late last week to discuss the big, beautiful bill. The White House gave Congressional leaders a wish list of items it wants in the bill – and what can fall by the wayside.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., still aims to pass the bill through the House by Memorial Day. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Tax credits for electric vehicles are out.
«I don’t have a problem if somebody wants to go buy an electric vehicle. I just don’t think hardworking Americans should be subsidizing that,» said House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wisc., on Fox News.
Republicans hope to use money generated from the sale of EVs to shore up the Highway Trust Fund. The government used the federal gas tax to pay for construction of roads and bridges. But Congress hasn’t adjusted the gas tax since the mid-1990s. Plus, more EVs and hybrids are now on the road. And conventional vehicles which rely on gas are more fuel efficient. So this shores up some of those depleted coffers.
HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS EMBRACES TRUMP BUDGET PROPOSAL ‘PARADIGM SHIFT’
Johnson is sticking by his goal to pass the bill through the House by Memorial Day. But some Republicans doubt that timeline.
«There’s no way,» said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., on Fox Business. «Unfortunately, President Trump chose the one big, beautiful (bill). What he should have done is the multiple-step process.»
In other words, lawmakers could have addressed the border, tax cuts and spending cuts in individual chunks. Loading everything onto one legislative truck makes this hard.
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So can the House approve this in two weeks? There’s not a lot of consensus yet. But maybe they’ll try to wear Members down.
«We will stay until we pass it,» said one senior House GOP leadership source.
Congress,Donald Trump,House Budget,Defense Spending & Budget News,House Of Representatives,Senate
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Cena con cardenales y encuentros en el Vaticano: ¿El presidente Emmanuel Macron quiere tener un papa francés?
¿Candidato gracias a Macron?
¿Por qué un cardenal de Marsella?
El papa Francisco escucha un discurso del cardenal Jean-Marc Aveline en la Basílica de Notre Dame de la Garde, durante una oración mariana con el clero diocesano, en Marsella, Francia, el viernes 22 de septiembre de 2023. Foto AP¿Qué impacto podría tener un Papa francés en Francia?
A senior Israeli defense official on Monday said President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to the Middle East is the «window of opportunity» to secure a hostage deal, otherwise Israel will initiate a new military operation in the Gaza Strip.
«If there is no hostage deal, Operation ‘Gideon Chariots’ will begin with great intensity and will not stop until all its goals are achieved,» the official said according to a Reuters report in reference to a Sunday night decision by Israel’s security cabinet to expand operations in the Gaza Strip.
Israel will use the roughly 10-day time frame to prepare for its new operations, which will entail calling up tens of thousands of reserve troops with the goal of taking over all the Gaza Strip.
ISRAEL APPROVES PLAN TO CAPTURE ALL OF GAZA, CALLS UP TENS OF THOUSANDS OF RESERVE TROOPS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, with Defense Minister Israel Katz. (Israeli PM’s Office)
In an apparent move to counter the terror group Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces will remain in captured territory rather than withdraw forces after an operation is complete. Israel has not presented a plan for how long it intends to occupy the Palestinian lands in a move that violated U.N.-brokered treaties and internationally recognized borders.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not respond to Fox News Digital’s questions.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement that the plan approved by the cabinet to occupy territory and sustain Israel’s presence in Gaza should be named the «Smotrich-Netanyahu plan» to «give up on the hostages and Israel’s security and national resilience.»
In the statement, the forum said that this plan is an admission by the government that it is choosing territories over freeing the hostages and noted that more than 70% of Israelis have opposed military prioritization over hostages in recent polling.
Trump had planned to make his trip to the Middle East, where he will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates between May 13 and 16, his first international visit since re-entering the White House, to signify the significance of the region to the U.S.
While this will still be a major geopolitical visit, his first international trip ended up being his visit to Italy for Pope Francis’ funeral, where he held close discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Neither the White House nor the State Department immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s questions regarding Israel’s increasingly aggressive position and how it is impacting hostage and peace deal negotiations.
PARENTS OF HAMAS HOSTAGES URGE TRUMP TO BE ‘TOUGH WITH ENEMIES AND FRIENDS’ AMID ISRAELI SIEGE IN GAZA
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, meets with then-President-elect Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. (Photo by Prime Minister’s Media Adviser)
Comments made by Netanyahu last week sent ceasefire negotiators reeling after he, for the first time, confirmed that returning the hostages taken by Hamas nearly 580 days ago on Oct. 7, 2023 was not his top priority.
«We have many objectives, many goals in this war. We want to bring back all of our hostages,» Netanyahu said. «That is a very important goal. In war, there is a supreme objective. And that supreme objective is victory over our enemies. And that is what we will achieve.»
The Israeli prime minister also on Saturday justified his increasingly aggressive operations in Gaza that have resulted in the death of more than 50,000 in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, including more than 15,600 children as of late-March, as «a war between civilization and barbarism.»
The building belonging to the Berbag family was destroyed after an Israeli attack, leaving several Palestinians, including children, dead and wounded in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Aug. 2, 2024. (Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Qatar, which has been heavily involved in hostage negotiations and ceasefire efforts, responded in a Saturday post on social media and said the comments «fall short of the most basic standards of political and moral responsibility.»
«Portraying the ongoing aggression against Gaza as a defense of ‘civilization’ echoes the rhetoric of regimes throughout history that have used false narratives to justify crimes against innocent civilians,» said Majed Al Ansari, advisor to Qatar Prime Minister Mohammad Al-Thani and spokesman for the foreign ministry.
Ansari did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions.
Fox News’ Yael Rotem-Kuriel contributed to this report.
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