Schiff: ‘We Can’t Ignore’ That Some Of Trump’s Base Are ‘White Nationalist Domestic Terror Threat’

On Wednesday night, President Joe Biden went on to say during his first joint address to Congress: “We won’t ignore what our intelligence agencies have determined to be the most lethal terrorist threat to our homeland today: White supremacy is terrorism.“

This is absolutely insane. https://t.co/XlHeht1Ew6

— Matthew RJ Brodsky (@RJBrodsky) April 29, 2021

Hours earlier, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) appeared on MSNBC‘s “Deadline,” where he telegraphed Biden’s comments – arguing that the predominant domestic threat faced by America comes from white nationalists, and that “some of the folks are part of the Trump base.”

When asked by host Nicole Wallace if working on the intelligence committee is “different now that the intel chiefs testified to the tragic new reality that the gravest threats to the country are domestic violent extremists?”

Schiff responded: “It does affect the work of our committee certainly. I think all of the domestic agencies with a portfolio with domestic terrorism have to prioritize it like FBI and DHS. We have the responsibility of overseeing the intelligence component of that. We were already doing an investigation last year into politicization of intelligence at DHS where one whistleblower was alleging that instructions were being given essentially to downplay the seriousness of the domestic terror committed by white nationalists and hype the threat of Antifa.”

He continued: “We saw that from Bill Barr and others in the leadership of the last administration. We just had a hearing on this subject. I can tell you one of the ongoing challenges is a lot of the Republican members didn’t think that our committee or the intelligence agencies, even those like the FBI and DHS with responsibility here, should be looking at this. That’s quite remarkable. You know, if we were looking at the threat of Islamic terror, the threat from within there would be no reservation about that among my GOP colleagues. But they were very uncomfortable clearly with the FBI and DHS looking at the problem of white nationalism and domestic terror.”

Wallace then said: “I was a member of the Republican Party in good standing after 9/11. I can’t fathom the Republicans having that hear no evil, see no evil do nothing about the response to 9/11. You are right. When the threat was foreign terrorism, there was not enough that they could do. There was no measure too aggressive. My question is, can you protect this country with one of the two major political parties refusing to recognize the threat?”

To which Schiff replied: “We ought to be able to find common ground that the predominant terrorism threat facing the country right now is a domestic threat. The predominant part of that domestic threat is white nationalist threat. That has international, transnational links as well. We can’t ignore that because of a political sensitivity that some of the folks are part of the Trump base. So I hope we can find common ground. We need to make sure we protect the country.”

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