Democrats and the media have praised “white-collar” and “far-right” terrorism while downplaying ISIS
Democrats and the liberal media were focused on amplifying terrorist threats associated with white supremacy while downplaying the threats of jihadist terrorist groups like ISIS before Wednesday’s terrorist attack in New Orleans.
On New Year’s Day, a 42-year-old Indian man from Texas crashed his pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street, New Orleanskilling at least 14 and injuring more than 30 others. The FBI has identified the man responsible for the attack as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who was carrying 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, white supremacist terrorism is the deadliest threat to the homeland today. Not ISIS, not Al Qaeda — white racists,” President Biden said in June 2021.
Biden would again call white supremacy “the most dangerous terrorist threat” facing the nation during the address at Howard University May 13, 2023 The next day, MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart asked Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas if he thought Biden’s remarks about white supremacy as the “most dangerous terrorist threat” facing the nation were accurate. It is tragic, Mayorkas replied.
Shamsud Din-Jabbar shown in an undated photo released by the FBI after he drove his pickup truck down Bourbon Street in New Orleans and died in a shootout with responding officers. (FBI)
Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland gave similar answers at a 2021 congressional hearing when asked by then-Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., if “white supremacist extremists remain the most persistent lethal threat we face in the homeland today?”
NEW ORLEANS TERRORISTS CHOOSE BOURBON STREET FOR MAXIMUM CARNAGE: TIMELINE
“Indeed, it is so,” said Mayorkas.
When Garland was asked if he agreed with Mayorkas, he replied, “I do, and that’s the latest assessment by the FBI.”
Their comments followed a report he released Director of the National Intelligence Service that racially motivated extremists represent America’s deadliest domestic terrorist threat. At a March 2021 congressional hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that the threat of domestic violent extremism is “metastasizing” across the US
According to DHS, between 2010 and 2021, there were 231 domestic terrorist incidents. Of these, about 35% were classified as racially or ethnically motivated. These attacks were also the deadliest, however the FBI and DHS do not break down the racial affiliation of the perpetrators in this category.
Violent extremism motivated against the government or authorities was the second largest category of attacks and resulted in 15 deaths over the same 11-year period.
FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, December 5, 2023. (AP/Susan Walsh)
report from the New America think tank concluded that far-right extremists killed 134 people in more than three dozen attacks, while US-based individuals the FBI calls “jihadists” killed 107 people in 14 attacks. The FBI defines far-right terrorism as violence against the government, militias, white supremacy, and anti-abortion violence.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said 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 bow down, before we let’s get on the subway.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a briefing on September 13, 2023 in New York. (Photo: John Lamparski/Getty Images) (Ivan Lamparski)
Joy Reid, host of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” explained why she thinks domestic terrorism is not being condemned by Republicans in the same harsh way they are condemning foreign terrorism on the November 2023 show.
“Iran becomes a surrogate for Muslims, we’re going to shoot people in Mexico, and talk about fentanyl becomes a surrogate for brown people south of our border,” Reid said.
Her guest, Cornell Belcher, was also disheartened by the idea that too little attention is being paid to the terror of white supremacy compared to foreign threats.
“You never hear them say we’re going to get rid of 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 with bomb-sniffing dogs patrol the area around the Superdome ahead of the NCAA College Football Playoff Sugar Bowl game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
ISIS is the jihadist group that carried out terrorist attacks around the world but 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 directed him to carry out the attack.
The suspected terrorist’s brother told The New York Times that Jabbar was raised in Christianity but converted to Islam. The brother, Abdur Jabbar, emphasized that his brother does not represent the Islamic faith and instead called his actions an example of “radicalization.”
Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.
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