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The FBI and the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security are warning about the high risk of domestic extremist attacks centered around the presidential election.
Last week, New Jersey’s homeland security office took the rare step of publicly revealing the threat, which remained internal until now.
“You have this witch’s brew that really hasn’t happened in America’s history. And if it has, it’s been decades if not centuries,” said Jared Maples, director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, which published the threat assessment.
According to a source close to the matter, a recent internal FBI bulletin warned that domestic extremists would likely pose an increasing threat to government and election-related targets.
An August 17th DHS memo said that ideologically driven extremists “could quickly mobilize” to carry out violent acts related to the November 3rd presidential election,
which is extremely tense already as Donald Trump and Joe Biden face off. The memo also said the greatest threat was that of lone offender white supremacists and other lone offenders with “personalized ideologies.”
According to data compiled by the Anti-Defamation League, a New York City-based anti-hate advocacy organization, white supremacist, anti-Semitic, anti-government, and related ideologies were tied to 77 percent of 454 alleged domestic extremist murders in the past 10 years.
Several factors could likely be the driving force behind the heightened threat, including the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed over 200,000 lives in the U.S. and caused crippling financial hardships to many families in the country. Current racial tensions mounting from the killing of unarmed African Americans by white police officers have also fueled the fire. It also does not make it better when the current commander-in-chief is an endorser of such hateful behavior. Trump even went as far as to suggest that Kyle Rittenhouse, the Kenosha, Wisconsin shooter who murdered two protesters in August, acted in self-defense.
During congressional hearings this month, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the agency was looking into violent domestic extremists, which includes white supremacists and anti-fascist groups. Wray confirmed that the largest “chunk” of investigations were into white supremacist groups.
