Garland says white supremacists are the ‘top domestic extremist threat’ in the U.S.

Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland, citing an FBI report, said that “the top domestic extremist threat comes from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race.”

Video Transcript

MERRICK GARLAND: Unfortunately, the horror of domestic violent extremism is still with us. Indeed, the FBI assessed that 2019 was the deadliest year for violent domestic extremism since 1995. In March of this year, the intelligence community, in a report drafted by DHS, the FBI, and the National Counterterrorism Center, under the auspices of the Director of National Intelligence, assessed that domestic violent extremists pose a elevated threat in 2021. And in the FBI's view, the top domestic violent extremist threat we face comes from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race.

Many communities have experienced this horror over the past several years. In El Paso, 23 people, most of whom were Latino, were gunned down while shopping at a Walmart. In Pittsburgh, 11 Jewish worshippers were shot and killed at their synagogue. In Charleston, a white supremacist shot and killed nine Black men and women who were praying at their church. And many acts of hate-fueled violence don't make the national news, but they still terrorize entire communities.