Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas lambasted a Republican lawmaker during a tense standoff on Capitol Hill Tuesday after the senator accused President Joe Biden's Cabinet member of being indifferent about a DHS employee's hatred of Israel.

Mayorkas made a rare break from his normally composed manner during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing Tuesday afternoon and berated Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) for accusing his staff of indifference toward Jews and Israeli citizens.

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Mayorkas knocked Hawley for attacking him on the basis of being supportive of Hamas-controlled Gaza when he himself was the descendant of a Holocaust survivor.

Hawley opened his line of questioning with concerns about a rank-and-file employee within the Citizenship and Immigration Services, a DHS agency, who had made social media posts celebrating the Hamas attack on Israel in October.

"'F Israel, the government and its military. Are you ready for your downfall?'" Hawley said as he read an Instagram post by USCIS employee Nejwa Ali, who previously worked for the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

Mayorkas called Ali's longer statement "odious" and said that it did not rise to the level of terrorist ideology or speech.

"She also posted this graphic. This is a famous graphic, I want to be clear, but I think we understand it. This is a paraglider, a Hamas paraglider depicted here, with a machine gun flying into Israel. She posted it under her online alias with the celebratory Free Palestine," Hawley said. "Mr. Secretary, what, what's going on here? Is this, is this typical of people who work at DHS? This is an asylum and immigration officer who is posting these frankly pro-genocidal slogans and images on the day that Israelis are being slaughtered in their beds."

Mayorkas said he had four points to make in response and started with a harsh rebuttal of how he said Hawley had slandered the department's 260,000 employees.

"No. 1, your question to suggest that that is emblematic of the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security is despicable," Mayorkas said.

Hawley interrupted repeatedly and asked if Mayorkas had fired Ali before the DHS secretary finally continued to his other points.

"You have employees who are celebrating genocide, and you are saying it's despicable for me to ask the question. Has she been fired?" Hawley asked.

"That individual has been placed on administrative leave. ... No. 2, the individual was hired in 2019," Mayorkas said. "Three, I cannot speak to an ongoing personnel matter."

Hawley fired back at Mayorkas through his response and asked why Ali had not been fired despite her suspension. The senator asked if Ali had used her role as an immigration officer to rule against Jews and Israeli citizens who sought admission to the United States.

"I can't believe that you would come to this committee knowing this. You know about this. I've written to you about it. You know all about it. And you come here unwilling to answer and suggest that it is wrong of me to ask you the question. Quite frankly, Mr. Secretary, I think that your performance is despicable, and I think the fact that you are not willing to provide the answers to this committee is absolutely atrocious," Hawley said.

Mayorkas asked Chairman Gary Peters (D-MI) for permission to respond to the chairman about Hawley's accusations following the exchange.

"No. 1, what I found despicable was the implication that this language, tremendously odious actually, could be emblematic of the sentiments of the 260,000 men and women of the Department of Homeland Security," Mayorkas said. "No. 2, Sen. Hawley takes an adversarial approach to me in this question, and perhaps he doesn't know my own background."

"Perhaps he does not know that I am the child of a Holocaust survivor. Perhaps he does not know that my mother lost almost all her family at the hands of the Nazis," Mayorkas said. "And so I find his adversarial tone to be entirely misplaced. I find it to be disrespectful of me and my heritage. And I do not expect an apology."

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Hawley asked Peters for a chance to respond but was denied.

Hawley later questioned Mayorkas at the end of the hearing, but the senator did not apologize or address his earlier comments to Mayorkas.