Describing herself as an “equal-opportunity foe of antisemitism,” President Joe Biden’s pick to monitor and combat prejudice against Jews around the world finally got her day before the Senate committee that will evaluate her nomination.
Biden had nominated Deborah Lipstadt to lead the State Department’s office for combating antisemitism in late July. A hostage standoff last month at a Texas synagogue brought about new calls for the Senate to act on her nomination.
“We’ve seen a spike of antisemitism here at home and abroad, making this position exceedingly important,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. said Tuesday.
But Lipstadt’s nomination languished in the Senate last year after she criticized comments from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who had said he wasn’t worried about the predominately white insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol, but might have been if they had been Black Lives Matter protesters.
