The top Democrat on the House Education Committee, Rep. Bobby Scott (Va.), sent a letter to the committee's Republican chairman asking for an investigation into antisemitism within campus Republican groups. The letter, obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, marks a shift for Scott, who has repeatedly complained about committee hearings on campus antisemitism since Oct. 7, 2023.
"At the University of Florida, the school with the largest population of Jewish students in America according to Hillel International, the College Republicans group was suspended after photos were leaked of members making a Nazi salute," Scott wrote. "At Florida International University, the school with the 14th highest Jewish student population, multiple students involved in Republican and conservative groups on campus participated in a group chat that frequently included slurs for African-Americans and Jews, and at one point was named in part for a 'mythical white civilization promoted by the Nazi politician Heinrich Himmler.'"
As Scott noted in his letter, the University of Florida removed its campus College Republicans chapter as a registered student organization in March, though Scott did not mention that the university did so after the Florida Federation of College Republicans, a state Republican Party organ, revoked the chapter's charter. The committee's Republican majority also released a statement in response to the ordeal, stating, "Antisemitism is unacceptable—no matter where it occurs."
Scott's request for an investigation represents a sharp break from the positions he has expressed on the committee since Oct. 7 and the ensuing surge of antisemitism on U.S. college campuses. During hearings on the issue, Scott has accused the committee of "stoking culture wars that can be divisive and discriminatory" and focusing too much on antisemitism. He has also argued that the hearings were ineffective and aimed at maligning "genuine political protest."
On Dec. 5, 2023—the hearing that featured the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—Scott blamed campus antisemitism on America's "centuries-long history of racism and white supremacy."
Months later, at a May 23, 2024, hearing, Scott claimed that the committee "has attempted to remove any distinction between hate speech and genuine political protest" and compared anti-Israel campus radicals to Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement.
"I would like to remind everyone that the civil rights movement of years past has always moved public opinion rather than just waiting for it to change," Scott said. "Today, 81 percent of Americans report a favorable opinion of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But, in 1966, a Gallup survey found that nearly two-thirds of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of Dr. King. Two years later, in the immediate aftermath of his assassination, another survey found that roughly one third of Americans felt that he brought it on himself." He also suggested that antisemitism was surging on college campuses because "DEI programs, which try to bring people together are being disparaged and eliminated."
At the committee's most recent hearing on campus antisemitism, on July 15, 2025, Scott said, "I would be remiss if I did not point out that this is our ninth hearing on antisemitism in 18 months."
"I will also note that since this Committee's first antisemitism hearing in December 2023, we have not held a single hearing addressing racism, xenophobia, sexism, Islamophobia, or other challenges affecting other student groups on America's college campuses," Scott wrote in his opening statement. "I have witnessed this Committee’s silence on this Administration's wholesale attack on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives designed to make campuses more welcoming to all groups."
Scott struck a similar tone during a May 7, 2025, hearing.
"Unfortunately, instead of properly enforcing Title VI, this committee is holding the eighth hearing describing the problem and complaining about antisemitism on college campuses, instead of taking any meaningful action to actually solve the problem," Scott wrote in his opening remarks. "Curiously, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have not held any hearings addressing other forms of discrimination and hate, such as racism, Title IX gender violations, Islamophobia, homophobia, or the challenges of meeting the needs of students with disabilities."
Scott, who did not respond to a request for comment, is not the only Democrat on the House Education Committee to take issue with hearings on campus antisemitism. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) used the May 7, 2025, hearing to argue that efforts to investigate harassment and discrimination amounted to attacks on "protected speech." Rep. Greg Casar (D., Texas), who called President Donald Trump "the most antisemitic president in modern American history," said Republicans were "distorting the definition of antisemitism."
Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) skipped the May 23, 2024, hearing, instead holding a press conference outside the Capitol. Tlaib said the antisemitism under investigation was really "students leading nonviolent civil disobedience and demanding change." Omar said it "is also not antisemitic to voice support for Palestinian people who have faced decades of oppression, displacement and the violation of their human rights under the Israeli occupation, apartheid and the genocide that’s currently being carried out."
On the same day as the initial Dec. 5, 2023, committee hearing, a group of House Democrats slammed a Republican-led resolution condemning antisemitism in the aftermath of Oct. 7. Reps. Jerry Nadler (N.Y.), Jamie Raskin (Md.), and Dan Goldman (N.Y.) all said they planned to vote "present" on the resolution, which they described as "the latest unserious attempt by Republicans to weaponize Jewish pain and the serious problem of antisemitism to score cheap political points."
Thirteen Democrats ultimately voted against that resolution.
Committee Democrats have also ignored antisemitism from College Democrats. In 2021, just a day before Nourhan Mesbah was elected vice president of the College Democrats of America's executive board, the group's Jewish Caucus released a 2016 post on X in which Mesbah blamed Jews for then-candidate Hillary Clinton's performance in a debate against Trump.
"I blame this debate on the yahood," she posted, with "Yahood" being the Arabic word for "Jews."
No Democrats on the committee called for an investigation into Mesbah's comments. Scott was the committee chairman at the time.
