I.

Am asking specifically calling for the genocide of Jews. Does that constitute bullying or harassment? If it is directed and severe or pervasive, it is harassment.

So the answer is yes. It is a context-dependent decision. So the answer is yes, that calling for the genocide of Jews violates of conduct. It depends on the context.

College President is up on Capitol Hill. It's time for our Common Ground segment. Tonight, we talk about efforts to combat anti-Semitism nationwide, specifically on college campuses, and a special bill about schools. Joining me, Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Cain and Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton. Senators, thanks for being here. Want to talk about your cell phone bill and schools in just a second. First, coming off of that soundbite and the testimony, it is a big concern. It's eye-opening what we've seen across the country. How do you characterize it?

Well, Brett, it is a huge concern. We have scar tissue in Virginia from the rally in August of 2017, where kids who were at the Hillel, they had just come to UVA to start the semester, had the Hillel surrounded and people were channing Jews will not replace us. We've seen it, but it has spiked dramatically since October seventh, 400% increase.

You both have sent letters to the administration, specifically Secretary Cardona, about concerns of this on college campuses.

Yeah, Brett, I thought the testimony you saw yesterday from these college presidents was disgraceful. I think it should be pretty simple that if you're calling for the genocide of Jews, that would be hate speech or violate your campus's code of conduct. You can only imagine what Jewish students or Jewish faculty members or employees at those campuses think. I think the administration could take steps, whether it's the Department of investigation investigating potential acts of anti-Semitism on federally funded campuses, or the FBI and the Department of Justice investigating such anti-Semitic violence, especially in places like Los Angeles, if the local authorities want to step in to enforce the civil rights of Jewish Americans.

You all seek common ground on a number of things. You're for this funding for Israel, for Ukraine and this supplemental. But it has fallen apart over the issue of immigration. Take a listen.

Count me in on your train. Count me in with Israel. Count me in with help in Taiwan. The border provisions and the supplemental center of our President Biden were inadequate.

I'm still waiting for their amendment. Any amendment.

They want, if they can get 60 votes.

They can solve the border problem. We, as Democrats, are ready to meet Republicans halfway.

That's the question, Senator Cain, is an immigration solution possible to get this supplemental across the finish line?

I think it is, Brett. The President sent over a proposal that had robust border security funding, but he didn't send it over thinking that everybody was just going to say yes without wanting to edit or amend it. We're going into the Israel, to the Ukraine, to the Taiwan provisions and making adjustments. I get it that the Republican say, Okay, that was your proposal, but we have ideas. It looks like the motion to proceed to the bill tonight is likely to fail. That just means we have to sit down at the table and come up with a solution because we do need to get this funding to our allies to defend against these serious.

Challenges before the holidays. I was up against the holiday calendar. Do you think that those days are there to get it done?

I think they are. We've talked about this a long time. I don't think this is an issue where people need to know more. I think they just need to sit down and hash something out.

I think so.

Well, I hope we can get a solution because I support all those initiatives. I support Ukraine and Israel and helping Taiwan and certainly border security. I do worry that the situation at the border now is so chaotic that it presents a genuine national security crisis. Just yesterday, we had 12,000 migrants cross our border, and an increasing concern that these migrants could be camouflageing potential foreigners who want to attack Americans. We have to address the situation at the border, and I think that's the key to passing a bill that has the aid that Tim and I both want to send to Ukraine, to Israel, to support Taiwan, and to replenish and restock our own defenses.

You know, Senator, that the Republican Caucus in the House, there is angst about Ukrainian funding. I had the Ukrainian Defense Minister on yesterday talking about how it really has stalled as far as what the counter-offensive has looked like. What's the pushback to that?

Well, the answer, I think, is that the President set up a bill that had funding for Ukraine and Israel and Taiwan, but also funding for the borders, Tim said. Now, I don't think the border provisions in particular are adequate. I do support the funding for those foreign countries as well to help them with their own defenses, but we have to protect our country as well. A lot of House Republicans are saying we have to focus on our border as much as we focus on other.

Countries' borders. But for the folks who say we shouldn't be sending all this money to Ukraine, they're not seeing a lot of success. They should get a deal, make a deal and have a negotiation.

That's up to Ukrainians. But look, they are seeing success. They've taken 60% back from what Russia took from them early in this invasion. You're right, in recent months it's a little bit more stalemated. But I think there are the votes there in both houses to support Ukraine. We've got to get over this immigration issue. But when you have the votes there, you can make it happen. We got to stay here till we get.

It done. Talk to me about the common ground on this bill to study the effects of cell phones in schools. Pilot program to provide schools with secure containers to store phones. $5 million annually for a pilot program. Gather input from parents, students, educators. You think cell phones in schools is a bad thing?

I'm really worried about it. I think Tom and I come at it from some different angles. He's the parent of school kids right now. My kids are long out of school. But here's what I'm seeing, Brett, in Richmond, where I live, six schools in my city embraced this as a policy to restrict cell phone usage. And the other schools didn't, but they're going to compare and see. Does this help with avoid learning loss? Help kids focus? Does it help kids feel better about themselves because they're not seeing stuff on social media that makes them feel bad about themselves? And I think what we want to do is do a study of the many jurisdictions that have now embraced these reasonable restrictions, see if they're working, and also provide some pilot funds so that other schools that want to do it can.

I probably see a lot of parents who would say that's a good thing. The one red flag would be perhaps if there's something horrible, a school shooting or something, and they want to get in touch with their kids or the kids want to communicate. How do you respond to that?

Brett, on that question, which I get a lot from parents and teachers across Arkansas, if something horrific like that happened at your kid's school, imagine where kids are more likely to survive, where they're all looking at their phones, all texting their parents, parents are converging and potentially blocking avenues for first responders to get there. Or where they're all looking at the grown up, the teacher or the coach or the administrator who has a phone himself or herself can communicate with other adults and the kids are taking directions from the adults. But as Tim said, in the ordinary run of course, I think a lot of parents and teachers that I've heard from across Arkansas are deeply concerned about at a minimum distraction in the classroom, but also learning loss and mental health challenges. We want to help those schools that are trying to decide how to set course have a gold standard study of this and provide some pilot programs to help make that study fully comprehensive.

Tik-tok is on a lot of those phones. Are you both in favor of jettison Tik-tok?

I'm not there yet, but we had a hearing on anti-Semitism in the help committee, and we asked a college student, What is the one thing we should do? We thought she was going to talk about some campus policy, and she said banned TikTok. That's a worry. I will say this, Tom doesn't know this. I've got validation for our bill. Even today, I had a group of high schoolers in my office, and they're saying, Tell me something you're working on with someone on the other side of the aisle. I mentioned this bill, and I could tell they had a lot of reactions, so I braced for them to tell me it was a bad idea. They said, That's what our school does, and it works out fine.

Wow. I finally got my kids off TikTok. It took a long time. Senator, thanks so much.