Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, announced Wednesday his panel will host a hearing next month focused on domestic terrorism threats, including that of white supremacist groups, following the weekend clash in Charlottesville at a rally organized by white nationalist groups.
The Sept. 12 hearing was previously scheduled as part of an annual review of worldwide terrorist threats. But McCaul, R-Texas, said the hearing will be broadened to also address domestic threats.
The decision to expand the hearing comes in the wake of the violent rally in the Virginia college town where one woman died and 19 were injured when a car was driven into a crowd of counter-demonstrators.
“We must stand together and reject racism, bigotry, and prejudice, including the hateful ideologies by neo-Nazis, the KKK, and all other white supremacy groups,” McCaul wrote in a letter to Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee. “They do not define who we are as Americans and their repulsive values must not be allowed to infect our neighborhoods and spread violence in our communities.”
But Thompson said McCaul’s plan to expand an already planned hearing is not sufficient. Thompson, in a statement, said he wants a standalone hearing focused solely on white supremacists and neo-Nazi groups.
“Chairman McCaul’s response to Democrats’ request yesterday for hearings on domestic terrorism is completely inadequate,” Thompson said in a statement. “The Sept. 12 hearing to cover worldwide threats is an annual hearing that was scheduled prior to the domestic terrorism attacks last weekend. It will not allow us to go into the depth necessary to address the far ranging and multifaceted aspects of the threat posed by domestic terrorist threats from white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. After years of requests for Congressional hearings and the deaths of many, this is nothing more than attempt to distract from a topic the Republicans are unwilling to address.”
McCaul said he invited the leaders of the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and National Counterterrorism Center to testify, as is customary for the annual worldwide threats hearing.
After the deadly Charlottesville protest, neo-Nazis and white nationalist groups have said they intend to organize more rallies like it.
“Racial intolerance deserves no place in America, and it is imperative that we find ways to rid our nation of the scourge of white supremacism,” McCaul said.
