Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee posed heated questions on Thursday for Jeremy Carl, the Trump administration’s nominee to be assistant secretary of state for international organizations, over his long record of incendiary statements about Israel, Jews and racial issues.
At one point during the nomination hearing, Carl, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, conceded that he regretted podcast appearances in the past when he downplayed the Holocaust’s significance to Jews.
“Sometimes, I take an idea too far, and I made some comments in interviews about minimizing the effect of the Holocaust that were absolutely wrong,” he said.
In a 2024 interview with the Christian Ghetto podcast, Carl said that the Holocaust “dominates so much of modern Jewish thinking.”
“Everyone has traumas in their past,” he said. “How much are we going to relitigate them?”
Carl, who was born Jewish but converted to Christianity, has been nominated to a position that oversees policy and funding for international bodies, including the United Nations and its subsidiaries.
Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) asked Carl how he could defend the U.S.-Israel relationship at the United Nations when he has previously claimed that America spends too much “time and energy” on Israel, “often to the detriment of our own national interest.”
The senator also noted that Carl had agreed with a statement in an interview that “the State of Israel is not a victim, but instead a perpetrator.”
“I think you can sense from my question my concerns,” Curtis said. “Anti-Israel bias in international organizations is part of a broader strategy to undermine the United States and our legitimacy.”
“I don’t know that I’ve been convinced that you understand the threat posed to the West in the narrative,” he added.
Carl said in response that “in the context of this particular role,” Israel is America’s closest ally and that he wished the United Nations would “stop being antisemitic all the time” and focus on other issues.
After the hearing, Curtis wrote that he would vote against Carl’s nomination.
“After reviewing his record and participating in today’s hearing, I’m not convinced that Jeremy Carl is the right person to represent our nation’s best interests in international forums,” Curtis stated. “I find his anti-Israel views and insensitive remarks about Jews unbecoming of the position for which he has been nominated.”
Curtis was the only Republican senator at the hearing to question Carl, who faced tougher questions and comments from Democrats.
‘The great replacement is real’
“You have discriminated against Jews in your writing, you have discriminated against others, and then you claim yourself as a victim,” said Sen. Corey Booker (D-N.J.).
“Mr. Chairman, I’ve never seen such a blatantly racist individual, who doesn’t even deny that he’s made these statements but wants to tell us that he regrets them and yet still believes that this body, who is committed to principles of equality, who is committed to committed to the ideals of our founders, that you’re not in direct violation of those ideals and values and principles,” Booker said.
In 2024, Carl gave a speech at the National Conservatism Conference titled “On the persecution of whites in America,” in which he claimed that there is a “great replacement” of and “cultural genocide” against white people in America.
“You said, ‘The great replacement is real, and they are going to try to make you pay for it.’ Who is ‘they?’” Booker asked.
“I simply don’t know from you reading that one isolated comment,” Carl replied.
“I’m a civic nationalist,” Carl said in response to a similar question from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).
“I am concerned with the majority common American culture that we had for some time that, through particularly mass immigration, has become much more balkanized,” Carl said. “I think that weakens us.”
Carl denied that he thought white culture was superior to other cultures but said that elements of white culture in America were under threat.
“The white church is very different than the black church in terms of its tone and style on average, foodways could often be different—those are being erased,” Carl said.
“Music could be different,” he said. “If you look at the Super Bowl halftime show, which was not in English this year.”
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) said that Carl’s Jewish background was no excuse for his comments about Jews.
“I know everyone cares about the rise of antisemitism here and around the United States and around the world,” she said. “If you have empathy for the Jewish community, communities experiencing hate, simply tired of advancing nominees who I doubt will be respected on the world stage, you must vote against Mr. Carl’s nomination.”
Carl’s nomination vote, which has yet to be scheduled, would fail if he is opposed by Curtis and every Democrat on the committee.
