Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin argued that white supremacist violence is a bigger domestic threat than antifa violence on a Portland, Oregon, federal courthouse.
Durbin, an Illinois senator and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made the point during opening remarks in a hearing with FBI Director Christopher Wray about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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“I join my Republican colleagues, unequivocally, in condemning left-wing violence, but let’s stop pretending that the threat of antifa is equivalent to the white supremacist threat,” Durbin said. “Vandalizing a federal courthouse in Portland is a crime that should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but it is not equivalent to a violent attempt to overturn the results of elections, nor is it equivalent to mass shootings targeting minority communities.”
Last summer, Portland, Oregon, saw months of daily protests and riots, during which time rioters targeted a federal courthouse downtown where officers were barricaded inside, threw projectiles at officers, and set fires, among other maneuvers.
Durbin said that he hopes that Republicans will agree that “violent white supremacy is, ‘The most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland.'”
Wray later testified that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was perpetrated by “quite a number of militia violent extremists,” including “racially motivated violent extremists advocating for white supremacy.”
