Congressman Mike Lawler is speaking out forcefully after what he described as a disturbing antisemitic confrontation involving William Paul, the son of Senator Rand Paul, during an incident that reportedly took place at a Washington, D.C. restaurant late Tuesday night.

According to Lawler, the encounter began after he stopped to grab food following a long day and was meeting with a friend and a journalist when William Paul allegedly inserted himself into the conversation and began making inflammatory comments.

Lawler said Paul allegedly blamed “your people” if Congressman Thomas Massie were to lose politically. When Lawler asked who he meant by “my people,” he claimed Paul shouted, “Jews.”

Lawler said he responded by explaining that he is “Irish, Italian, Catholic,” to which Paul allegedly replied, “Oh, I’m sorry to accuse you of that.”

The congressman described the remark as “remarkable in and of itself,” saying the conversation then escalated into what he called a roughly 10-minute antisemitic rant involving comments about Israel, Jewish people, and conspiracy theories that “played right into typical antisemitic tropes.”

“I think that’s disgusting,” Lawler said during remarks following the incident.

Lawler also tied the confrontation to what he described as a growing culture of hatred and antisemitism in society and online, noting that he represents one of the largest Jewish populations in the nation in New York’s 17th Congressional District.

“I’m not going to stop standing up for my constituents,” Lawler said. “I’m not going to stop standing up for the Judeo-Christian values that are at the core of our nation, our Constitution, and our rule of law.”

Lawler added that the rhetoric he encountered reflects the type of hatred many Jewish Americans, including many in his own district, increasingly face.