Madam President, I rise today to give a speech that I have never given before. It is really important that I do it on the Senate floor, but it is like I have never done it before because I am…
Madam President, I rise today to give a speech that I have never given before. It is really important that I do it on the Senate floor, but it is like I have never done it before because I am actually giving a speech to two young children who may not watch this for years, but I want them to hear it from me. These are two young boys--Azmir and Zaaran--and I write them. I give a sort of open speech to them tonight, really out of joy and faith that is untroubled by my hurt and my sadness.
You see, I think something about this country that so many people have come to know who have seen the worst of America but still love America. They know how these emotions sit side by side--that you could hold sadness and joy next to faith in this Nation, even though there is disappointment. And what I rise to talk to these two young boys about is their dad.
Their dad is a man named Adeel Mangi. He is an extraordinary man. I have met many people from New Jersey, but this man was so extraordinary that the President of the United States of America chose him, because of his qualifications, to be a justice on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. That was why he was chosen. But he also happened to be a glass ceiling breaker; he also happened to be somebody who
was going to make American history as the first ever Muslim judge--a man of Muslim faith--to be on the circuit court.
Now, this is extraordinary that it is 2024 and we have never had someone of the Muslim faith, especially because we are a nation that says there are no religious tests; that we are found on this ideal of religious freedom--but somehow, with the millions of American Muslims and with Muslims being here at our founding and all through American history and with Muslims fighting in every war in American history, we have never had a Muslim ascend to the circuit courts.
I would like to read from a letter that your father wrote. It is really powerful. I wish I could read the whole thing.
I ask unanimous consent that the whole letter by Adeel A. Mangi be printed in the official Record of the U.S. Senate.
So, here, he writes about his nomination:
When my nomination . . . came before the Senate Judiciary
Committee, I was prepared to answer any questions about my
qualifications, philosophy, or legal issues, [but] I received
none. Instead, I was asked questions about Israel, whether I
supported Hamas, and whether I celebrated the anniversary of
9/11. Even more revealing, however, was the tone. The
underlying premise appeared to be that because I am Muslim,
surely I support terrorism and celebrate 9/11. When I made
clear that all these claims are false--that I condemn the
Hamas attacks and all forms of terrorism, and indeed that it
was my city--[my city]--that was attacked on 9/11--the next
Republican Senators up just repeated their performative
outrage. There were children in the audience.
These attacks, nonetheless, continued endlessly for a
simple reason. As Senator Whitehouse revealed on the Senate
floor, this was an organized smear campaign fueled by dark
money. But it did not end there. After Jewish groups came to
my defense, these same attackers pivoted [their] focus to a
new absurdity, claiming that I supported the killing of
police officers--silently underpinned, in my view, by the
notion that as a Muslim I surely support violence, including
against law enforcement.
Now, your father goes on to detail not only how these incredible, outrageous smear attacks were false and that there was no basis for them but how he has actually been someone who has stood up in his legal career in pursuit of justice and has the support of dozens of police organizations, attorneys general from around the country, bipartisan groups of current and former attorneys general, law enforcement groups, and more.
He ends his letter with the conclusion that these tactics succeeded in stopping him from even getting a vote on the Senate floor, from ascending to the Third Circuit, and making history.
Your father--your father--concluded his letter by saying a truth: Our country faces an incoming tsunami of bigotry and hatred and discrimination. It targets Muslims, Arabs, Jews, Black people, the LGBTQ community, and many others.
And this is not in the letter, but I remind people that hate crimes are on the rise across our country.
Azmir and Zaaran, back to your father's letter:
And it always pretends to be something other than what it
is. These forces are fueled not only by their proponents, but
equally by the collaboration and silence of the spineless.
They can be defeated only by those who lead voters with
courage, not those who sacrifice principles for votes. But
courage can be found outside of politics. American Muslims
are part of this nation's fabric and will not cower. This
campaign was intended to make it intolerable for Muslims
proud of their identity to serve this nation. It will fail.
Our Constitution forbids religious tests for any Office of
the United States and American Muslims will cherish that
fundamental American value, even if others apply it only
selectively.
Your father continues:
I have battled for justice, even if it meant there would be
none for me.
I read that line, Azmir and Zaaran, and it gave me chills because it reminded me of my own family and stories of people who fought for justice that they would never enjoy. It reminded me of the history in this country when suffrage leaders fought for the vote for Black men, the vote for suffrage for Blacks, and they would not enjoy it as women. It reminds me of so many Americans who still stood up for principles and ideals that our country proclaims, even when they would not enjoy them.
Azmir and Zaaran, your father continues:
This unfortunate fact remains: We have a fundamentally
broken process for choosing federal judges. This is no longer
a system for evaluating fitness for judicial office. It is
now a channel for the raising of money based on performative
McCarthyism before video cameras, and for the dissemination
of dark-money-funded attacks that especially target
minorities. Nominees pay the price--and so . . . does our
nation. Who will give up the rewards of private sector
success for public service, if the added price is character
assassination and wading through a Senatorial swamp like this
one? This process must be reinvented to protect nominees from
threats both reputational and physical in an era of
Congressional dishonor where disinformation reigns and all
decency has been abandoned. I set forth this record of my
experience and my opinions so that this playbook will be
recognized the next time--
And there will be a next time--
a Muslim is nominated to a prominent position of service.
He ends with this:
To return to President Eisenhower's words, Americans must
now look at the story of this nomination, and ask themselves:
Is this who we are now?
To these two young boys he ends:
For my children, I hope America one day lives up to
President Eisenhower's promise, even if not today. For my
part, I entered this nomination process as a proud American
and a proud Muslim. I exit it the same way, unbowed.
Azmir and Zaaran, I remember this day and the excitement I felt when I walked into that hearing room, this wood-paneled historic chamber. I remember how it signaled to visitors the gravity of the business that was about to be conducted within the walls. And you two were seated in the front row, just behind your dad. I remember the joy that I felt when I saw the two of you, that you were going to witness the ascendency of your father to the highest court in the land, and you two were going to witness the smashing of a barrier and seeing your father--a proud American, who happens to be a Muslim--become the first.
I remember your smiles. I remember how they made my whole being smile. Your mother sat behind you beaming with pride. I sat on the dais so full of joy. And the hearing began.
I told your dad I didn't know why he asked you to leave the room. I wanted you to stay for the whole hearing. But
your mom and dad, wise beyond me, had you leave. At your young age then, I am glad you did not witness what then transpired. It was shameful. Not for your family, it was shameful for us as Senators. It was shameful for America.
You heard your father detail the remarks and the questions that were so degrading and demeaning. They weren't successful. They couldn't degrade or demean the character of your father, but they were degrading and demeaning--questions that have never been asked in all of American history to a nominee: ``Did you support 9/11, the terrorist attacks,'' that he witnessed. How insulting was that? And they were repeated over and over, demeaning and degrading--attempting to, but your father's character can never be demeaned, can never be degraded because he stood tall on that day.
In the history of this country of so many women and Black men and immigrants and Irish and Italian and Catholics and Asian Americans, Japanese and Chinese who have been insulted and looked down upon and faced bigotry, your father, like generations of other Americans who were told they weren't good enough because they were different, your father stood in the saddle and took the assaults, and he never ever, ever backed down.
Calmly and repeatedly, he answered the inane questions, the darkness directed toward him, and he showed his light.
I would be remiss if I didn't tell you over and over again how brilliant your father is, how he got to that seat. Amidst thousands of talented lawyers across the country, your father stood out to the President of the United States as one of the best. He is a top litigator. He is cherished by his colleagues.
His legal acumen and intellect were part of the reasons I recommended him because all throughout my State, on both sides of the aisle, people told me how amazing your father was, how talented your father was, how this was a layup for the court, how he would elevate the judiciary.
And what people said about him wasn't just his legal acumen; they also talked about your dad's character--a man who lives by his principles, how he even stood up to the government when it was discriminating against others because they were different, how he represented people who had no one to stand up for their values.
He stood up for a man named Karl Taylor, who was held in prison and beaten to death by correctional officers. Not only did your dad win that lawsuit for Mr. Taylor's family, but he helped protect other incarcerated people in New York by having all the prisons agree to install video cameras to stop attacks like that one from ever happening again to protect other lives.
Your father has this unrelenting commitment to the ideal of fairness and justice. He has modeled his life after that. He doesn't just believe these things, he acts in accordance with them.
New Jersey is lucky to have him on our State bar, and we would have been lucky to have him on the Third Circuit.
My mom said something about me that I think is funny. My mom says:
Behind every successful child is an astonished parent.
But I will never be surprised by the two of you. I think you two, knowing your parents, are going to grow up to be extraordinary lightworkers in this Nation.
James Baldwin said:
Children are never good at listening to their elders, but
they never fail to imitate them.
I have this faith in the two of you. And the reason why I am doing this, standing on the Senate floor talking to two New Jersey children, teenage boys, 14 and 13, the reason why I am talking to you is because I know who you are, with only meeting you on that day, because you were raised by these modeled citizens, by these great Americans whose character shines amidst the darkness of the storm that your family just went through.
Your father was professionally attacked. For months and months and months, he was trolled on the internet. He faced streams of hate as people built entire million-dollar campaigns to try to discredit him. Yet your dad and your mom never faltered and never flinched, told the President of the United States that they would continue in the process if the President believed that it was still possible for him to serve his Nation.
It is these attributes of your parents that I know live in you. I guess I want you all never to stop believing like your parents do and not just the attributes that mark your family and distinguish it but in those attributes of our Nation that we can never stop believing in.
This great body failed your father. It failed the American people. It is one of the most painful chapters I have had in public life.
The American people deserve a government that just doesn't function in accordance with fairness but upholds the ideals that are so core to this country; that everyone is created equal, that there should be liberty and justice for all.
That is not what happened in this episode. It is not what happened to your dad. He was treated differently because of his faith. Bigotry was used to attempt to demean him. Lies were used to discredit him. The broken political system was used to dissuade and intimidate people from standing up for him.
It was a dark moment in the Senate's history, I tell you this. But your father, whose character I believed in before the process, has shown a character that inspires me now more than ever.
I want to ask you two to never stop believing in the ideals of this Nation because it is why your father is who he is. Your parents told me their fealty to America, their love of this country, has not faltered. It is this great tradition of people who love America so much, even when America doesn't love them back. It is people in this country, from McCarthyism to the bigotry and hate of slavery, who kept working to change this country and make it better.
I ask the two of you to embrace your parents' way, to love America, to believe in her, and to know that this Nation needs you and your family.
I believe sometimes we have the most difficult moments to make way for better days ahead. I believe in people and their potential and ability to make a difference.
We are in a moment right now where too many leaders in our country subscribe to a politics of division. We are in a moment where we are seeing a rise of hate. I think it is an inflection point, and I think this is the point--and perhaps yours is the generation--to take our Nation in a better direction.
I believe, in many ways, your dad's steadfast love of country and the fact that he is unbowed by this process, I think that that is, in many ways, the foundation that is going to help us as a nation go forward.
I want to end with a poem my parents read me. I told your dad--and I got emotional when I talked to him earlier today--that when I looked at the two of you, I saw my brother and me.
Cary and I were raised by two parents, the first ever to integrate an all-White neighborhood. My parents faced the same kind of awful indignities as many people who are different in that they weren't allowed to buy their house. They had to get a White couple to pose as them--I was just a baby at that time--in order to be the first Black family to move in.
On the day of the closing on the house, when the White couple didn't show up and my father did, and a lawyer--like your father--the real estate agent didn't capitulate; he actually punched the lawyer in the face and sicced a Doberman pinscher on my dad.
We eventually got the owners of the home to sell us the house and moved in, but my parents were conscious my entire childhood that there is hate in this world, there is bigotry in this world. It was the tunnel that you had to come through to be in the very house where you lived. But they never wanted us to stop loving America and loving other people. They wanted us to know that there were going to be times in life when you are going to face hatred and that would never define you. What will define you is how you respond to it.
What your father gave America is a master's class on how to respond to lies, bigotry, and hatred--organized and financed. What your father showed
is, in that darkness, he could bring light.
So my parents wanted me to be like your dad in life; that if I faced the worst bigotry and hate, that I did not stop loving, that I did not stop loving others and loving Americans. And they would find ways to inspire me.
So I want to read you all one of the poems my parents shared with me--not the whole poem but a few sections. It is by a woman named Maya Angelou, and it is a poem called ``Still I Rise.''
You may write me down in history
with your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
To two young men, growing up in a great nation, to Azmir and Zaaran, I rise today to tell you that this is a great nation, to remind you that your father has made it greater, and to tell you that I am full of hope that the two of you will rise up and help our Nation redeem its difficult past and seize for itself an even greater future.
God bless the two of you. In sha' Allah, you two will make America even greater.
Madam President, I yield the floor.
