Democrats and the liberal media focused on hyping up terrorist threats linked to white supremacy while downplaying threats posed by jihadist terrorist groups like ISIS before the terrorist attack in New Orleans on Wednesday.
On New Year's Day, a 42-year-old Texas native drove his pickup truck into a crowd of New Year's revelers Bourbon Street, New OrleansKilling at least 14 and wounding more than 30 others. The FBI identified the man responsible for the attack as Shams al-Din Jabbar, who was flying an ISIS flag on his truck at the time of the attack. The incident revived previous comments about national security threats made by liberal pundits and Democratic lawmakers.
“According to the intelligence community, terrorism stemming from white supremacy is the deadliest threat to the homeland today,” President Biden said in June 2021. “Not ISIS, not Al Qaeda — white extremists.”
Biden will once again describe white supremacy as the “most dangerous terrorist threat” facing the nation during the graduation ceremony Address: Howard University on May 13, 2023. The next day, MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart asked Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas whether he believed Biden's statements about white supremacy being the “most serious terrorist threat” facing the nation were true. “It's tragic,” Mayorkas responded.
Shams al-Din Jabbar appears in an undated photo released by the FBI after he was attacked on Bourbon Street in New Orleans with a pickup truck and died in a shootout with officers who responded to the attack. (FBI)
Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland gave similar responses at a congressional hearing in 2021 when asked by then-Sen. Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, if “white supremacist extremists remain the most persistent deadly threat we face at home today?”
New Orleans terrorist chose Bourbon Street for maximum carnage: timeline
“Indeed, that is the case,” Mayorkas said.
When Garland was asked if he agreed with Mayorkas, he replied: “I do, and that's the FBI's latest assessment.”
Their comments came in the wake of a report issued by Director of National Intelligence Which found that racially motivated extremists pose the most lethal domestic terrorist threat to America. At a congressional hearing in March 2021, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that the threat from domestic violent extremism was “pervasive” throughout the United States.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, There were 231 domestic terrorist incidents between 2010 and 2021. Of these, about 35% were classified as racially or ethnically motivated. These attacks were also the most deadly, but the FBI and Department of Homeland Security did not analyze the racial background of criminals in this category.
Violent extremism against government or authority was the second largest category of attacks and led to 15 deaths during the same 11-year period.
FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on December 5, 2023. (AP/Susan Walsh)
a report The New America think tank concluded that right-wing extremists killed 134 people in more than three dozen attacks, while US-based individuals whom the FBI calls “jihadists” killed 107 people in 14 attacks. The FBI defines far-right terrorism as consisting of anti-government, anti-militia, white supremacist, and anti-abortion violence.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul stated in a speech to New Yorkers on November 22, 2022, that “white supremacists, right-wing extremists, and domestic terrorists are trying to strike fear into the hearts of New Yorkers,” and that “they want us to think twice about our safety before we worship, before we ride the subway.” “.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a news conference on September 13, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by John Lambarski/Getty Images) (John Lambarski)
Joy Reid, host of MSNBC's “The ReidOut,” explained why she believes domestic terrorism is not condemned in the same scathing way as foreign terrorism by Republicans, in a November 2023 broadcast.
He added: “Iran will become an alternative for Muslims, we will shoot people in Mexico, and talking about fentanyl will become an alternative for black people south of our border.” Reed said.
Her guest, Cornell Belcher, was also frustrated by the idea that not enough attention is drawn to white supremacist terrorism compared to foreign threats.
“You never hear them say we're going to uproot, or we're going to drive white supremacy out of this country, the same way they talk about terrorism in other places,” Belcher said.
“I wonder why that is?” he asked.
Security forces with police dogs patrol the area surrounding the Superdome before the Sugar Bowl NCAA College Football Playoff game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dale)
ISIS is an implemented jihadist group Terrorist attacks around the world But it has lost momentum in recent years, including in 2019 when US forces killed Iraqi militant and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The FBI said Thursday that Jabbar was “inspired” by ISIS, adding that it found no evidence that ISIS was directed to carry out the attack.
The suspected terrorist's brother told the New York Times that Jabbar was raised Christian, but converted to Islam. Brother Abdul-Jabbar stressed that his brother does not represent the Islamic faith, and described his actions as an example of “extremism.”
Fox News' Emma Colton contributed to this report.
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