The Trump administration’s top homeland security official skirted the debate over whether left-wing extremists or white supremacists are the greatest domestic terrorist threat, saying the Department of Homeland Security was committed to battling both.
In an annual speech that has historically presented the department’s top focus, acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf told current and former department officials gathered at the agency’s Washington headquarters on Wednesday that DHS is taking “unprecedented actions to address all forms” of violent extremism.
“DHS stands in absolute opposition to any form of violent extremism, whether by white supremacist extremists or anarchist extremists,” Wolf told an audience of approximately 100 people, all spaced out 6 feet or more within the auditorium. “We will continue our daily efforts to combat all forms of domestic terror.”
Wolf condemned rioters who have attacked federal, city, and private buildings in Portland for more than 100 days but did not name those behind the almost nightly attacks, which President Trump has identified as antifa, an alliance of far-left activists. Wolf’s 40-minute speech focused on the department’s variety of missions, including cybersecurity, border security, transportation safety, immigration enforcement, and other issues.
Last September, then-acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan rolled out a counterterrorism strategy that solidified violent white supremacists as the leading domestic security threat.
Under the strategy, DHS must release an annual assessment that looks at the state of terrorism and targeted attacks nationwide. An initial leaked draft of the 2020 update, which emerged last week, maintained that white supremacists represent the biggest national security threat to the public, outpacing that of the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and foreign fighters. However, two subsequent drafts describe white supremacy in language that does not paint it as the gravest problem.
“As the acting secretary outlined in his speech, DHS is working to address all threats to the homeland,” a DHS spokesman wrote in a text.
In recent years, religious facilities, including churches, mosques, and synagogues, have been targeted by extremists who carried out mass shootings. Following deadly attacks at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and in the streets of Dayton, Ohio, in August 2019, President Trump condemned “racist hate.”
In late 2017, then-acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke said global jihadist groups were her greatest concern for maintaining a secure homeland. Duke’s successor, Kirstjen Nielsen, named cyberattacks as one of her biggest worries.
