President Biden’s pick to be the first Muslim American appeals court judge has come under intense criticism from members of Congress over his ties to a law school center for Muslim, Arab and South Asian Americans, part of what the White House has called a “cruel, Islamophobic, smear campaign” to tank the nomination.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday called on Biden to withdraw his nomination of Adeel A. Mangi to the Philadelphia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, citing widespread concerns about his nomination that aren’t “just among Republicans in the Senate.”

The White House slammed the effort to derail Mangi’s nomination and said Biden continues to support him.

“Mr. Mangi, who has lived the American Dream and proven his integrity, is being targeted by a malicious and debunked smear campaign solely because he would make history as the first Muslim to serve as a federal appellate judge,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Wednesday. “Senate Democrats should side with the qualities that makes America exceptional — which Mr. Mangi embodies — not the hateful forces trying to force America into the past.”

Republicans and conservative groups such as the Judicial Crisis Network have accused Mangi of being antisemitic, and they and some Democrats have said he is anti-police. Republicans have also accused Mangi of sharing views espoused by panelists who spoke at events hosted by Rutgers Law School’s Center for Security, Race and Rights. Mangi, an experienced litigator and a partner at a New York law firm, previously served as a member of the center’s advisory board.

In 2021, on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2021, attacks, the center hosted a roundtable discussion that featured several controversial speakers. Republicans criticized that event and a more recent lecture on life under “violent occupation and settler colonial violence in Palestine” that the center hosted just days after the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on communities in southern Israel.

During Mangi’s Dec. 13 nomination hearing, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) questioned the Harvard- and Oxford-trained lawyer about his views on the Hamas attacks and whether he believed they were justified.

“The events of October 7 were horrific. A horror,” Mangi said, noting that his time on the advisory board did not mean he shares the views of all who work or speak at the center. “The attacks on civilians were abominable and against everything that I stand for. I have no patience for any attempts to justify or defend those attacks on civilians.”

The firestorm surrounding Mangi’s nomination comes at a time of heightened political sensitivity following the cross-border attacks — in which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli officials — and Israel’s retaliatory military campaign. At least 31,819 people have been killed and 73,934 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Threats against Arab, Jewish and Muslim Americans are also on the rise, according to federal officials.

In Senate floor remarks earlier this month, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called Mangi a “highly qualified nominee with incredible credentials” who “has gone through scrutiny unlike anything I have ever seen.”

But some Democratic lawmakers have also raised concerns about Mangi’s nomination, citing his membership on the advisory board of a criminal justice group that advocates on behalf of incarcerated individuals and their families. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.) on Tuesday became the first Democratic senator to say she would oppose Mangi’s nomination.

“Mangi’s affiliation with the Alliance of Families for Justice is deeply concerning,” Cortez Masto said in a statement. “This organization has sponsored a fellowship in the name of Kathy Boudin, a member of the domestic terrorist organization Weather Underground, and advocated for the release of individuals convicted of killing police officers. I cannot support this nominee.”

If all Republicans senators and Cortez Masto were to oppose his confirmation, the embattled lawyer would need the support of the remaining 50 Senate Democrats and independents to be confirmed. The Judicial Crisis Network has launched anti-Mangi ads in Montana, Pennsylvania and D.C., targeting Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.). In addition, outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) has told Politico he will not vote for any judicial nominee who does not have at least some bipartisan support.

Mangi has drawn criticism from more than a dozen law enforcement organizations, such as the Police Conference of New York, according to Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. But other groups, including the Coalition of the Underrepresented Law Enforcement Associations and the National Organization of Black Women in Law Enforcement, are supporting him, as are the AFL-CIO, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee.

“Mangi was questioned aggressively on thin pretext about his views on Israel, terrorism, and antisemitism, turning these serious issues into a tool of partisan attack,” the AJC said in a statement. “Elected officials should take a leadership role in calming the fears of and against American religious minorities, such as Jews and Muslims, not stoke them.”

Other Republicans have raised concerns about Mangi’s work as a partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, where he has represented pharmaceutical giants and litigated against union pension plans, according to an internal document prepared for Senate Republicans and shared with The Washington Post.

Mangi did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Biden has made diversifying the nation’s federal judiciary a key priority, nominating Zahid N. Quraishi as the first Muslim federal district court judge early in his term.

Of the 187 Biden judicial nominees confirmed so far by the Senate, nearly two-thirds have been women, according to the American Constitution Society, whose tally includes Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Biden’s picks also have been more racially diverse than those of his predecessors. About 35 percent of the confirmed judges are White, 28 percent are Black, 15 percent are Latino and 13 percent are Asian American, according to the society’s data. Under President Donald Trump, fewer than 4 percent of judges confirmed to the bench were Black.

On Tuesday, a divided Senate confirmed Nicole Berner to be the first openly gay judge and first labor lawyer on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which covers Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

“Ms. Berner will bring much-needed professional diversity to the courts and personal diversity to assure every American they have representation in our judiciary,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said before the vote. “These are judges outside the status quo — people of color, women, judges with diverse professional backgrounds — who are making the courts better reflect the people they serve.”

“Senate Democrats will continue working with President Biden to confirm more judges and bring more balance to the courts in the months ahead,” Schumer said.