Are right-wing extremists as dangerous as ISIS? Well, those of us who have paid enough attention to know that, post-9/11, more people have been killed by them than by jihadist terrorists certainly think so. And now, as of last week, the FBI does as well.
On Wednesday, FBI director Christopher Wray announced that the bureau now considers racially motivated violent extremists a threat on apar with ISIS, elevating their threat level to “national threat priority” for the year 2020. In a statement before the House Judiciary Committee, Wray said that the FBI would be dedicated to combating both domestic terrorism and hate crimes, noting that the majority of these attacks are “fueled by some type of white supremacy.”
Wray also noted that the kind of racist rhetoric that has become so very popular lo these last few years is part of what has fueled race-motivated violence to become the most lethal form of terrorism in the United States.
“In many cases, perpetrators can move quickly from rhetoric to violence, Wray said.
“They choose easily accessible weapons — a car, a knife, a gun, maybe an IED they can build crudely off the internet — and they choose soft targets,” Wray said. “That threat is what we assess is the biggest threat to the homeland right now.”
Racially-motivated violent extremists were the primary source of ideologically-motivated violence in 2018 and 2019 and have been considered the most lethal of all domestic extremists since 2001, Wray said in a statement Wednesday.”
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