Democrats and liberal media were focused on hyping up terror threats linked to white supremacy while downplaying threats from jihadist terrorist groups like ISIS ahead of the terrorist attack in New Orleans on Wednesday.
On New Year’s Day, a 42-year-old Texas man drove his pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s celebrants. Bourbon Street, New Orleanskilling at least 14 people and injuring more than 30 others. The FBI identified the man responsible for the attack as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who was flying an ISIS flag on his truck at the time of the attack. The incident has revived previous comments about national security threats from liberal pundits and Democratic lawmakers.
“According to the intelligence community, white supremacist terrorism is the most deadly threat to the homeland today. Not ISIS, not Al Qaeda – white supremacists,” President Biden said in June 2021.
Biden would again call white supremacy the ‘most dangerous terrorist threat’ facing the nation in commencement address at Howard University on May 13, 2023. The next day, MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart asked Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas if he thought Biden’s comments about white supremacy as the “most dangerous terror threat” facing the nation were accurate. “It’s tragic enough,” Mayorkas responded.
Shamsud Din-Jabbar pictured in an undated photo released by the FBI after he attacked Bourbon Street in New Orleans with a pickup truck and was killed in a shootout with responding officers. (FBI)
Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland gave similar answers during a 2021 Congressional hearing when asked by then-Senator. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., if “White supremacist extremists remain the most persistent deadly threat we face at home today?”
NEW ORLEANS TERRORIST CHOOSE BOURBON STREET FOR MAXIMUM CARNAGE: TIMELINE
“Indeed, that is the case,” Mayorkas said.
When Garland was asked if he agreed with Mayorkas, he replied, “Yes, and that is the FBI’s most recent assessment.”
Their comments followed a report released by the Director of National Intelligence which found that racially motivated extremists pose the deadliest domestic terrorism threat to America. During a March 2021 Congressional hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that the threat of domestic violent extremism was “metastasizing” across the US.
According to DHS it is between 2010 and 2021, there were 231 domestic terrorism incidents. Of these, approximately 35% were classified as racially or ethnically motivated. These attacks were also the most deadly, but the FBI and DHS do not provide insight into the racial background of perpetrators in this category.
Violent extremism against government or authority was the second largest category of attacks, resulting in fifteen deaths in the same eleven-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)
A report from the think tank New America concluded that far-right extremists have killed 134 people in more than three dozen attacks, while US-based individuals dubbed “jihadists” by the FBI have killed 107 people in 14 attacks. The FBI defines far-right terrorism as consisting of violence against the government, militias, white supremacists and anti-abortion violence.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, in an address to New Yorkers on November 22, 2022, stated that “white supremacists, right-wing extremists and domestic terrorists are trying to strike fear in the hearts of New Yorkers,” and that “they want us to think twice about our safety before we worship, before we get on the subway.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a briefing on September 13, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images) (John Lamparski)
Joy Reid, host of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” explained in a November 2023 broadcast why she thinks domestic terrorism is not condemned in the same virulent manner as foreign terrorism by Republicans.
“Iran is going to be a surrogate for Muslims, we’re going to start shooting people in Mexico and talking about fentanyl is going to be a surrogate for brown people south of our border.” Reid said.
Her guest, Cornell Belcher, was also disheartened by the idea that not enough attention is being drawn to white supremacist terror compared to foreign threats.
“You never hear them say we’re going to smoke 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 surrounding the Superdome prior to the Sugar Bowl NCAA College Football Playoff game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
ISIS is a jihadist group that has executed terrorist attacks worldwide 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 no evidence had been found that he was directed by ISIS to carry out the attack.
The suspected terrorist’s brother told The New York Times that Jabbar was raised Christian but had converted to Islam. The sibling, Abdur Jabbar, underlined 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.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
