President Joe Biden called white supremacy “the most lethal threat” to homeland security during a speech marking the 100th anniversary of the 1921 race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Tuesday.
“According to the intelligence community, terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today,” Biden said. “Not ISIS. Not Al Qaeda. White supremacists.”
“What happened in Greenwood was an act of hate and domestic terrorism, with a through-line that exists today,” Mr. Biden said. “Just close your eyes and remember what you saw in Charlottesville four years ago on television.”
In May, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told the Senate Appropriations Committee during a hearing on domestic extremism that white supremacists pose “the tops domestic violent extremist threat” in the United States.
“Domestic violent extremists pose an elevated threat in 2021 and in the FBI’s view, the top domestic violent extremist threat we face comes from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race,” Garland told lawmakers.
Garland rejected GOP Sen. Richard Shelby’s concerns relating to whether the Justice Department was examining protests in Portland, Oregon, and demonstrations that were linked to former President Donald Trump with “equal vigor.”
“We don’t care what the ideology is, violations of law are pursued and are prosecuted. I think it’s fair to say that in my career as a judge, and in law enforcement, I have not seen a more dangerous threat to democracy than the invasion of the Capitol,” Garland said. “There was an attempt to interfere with the fundamental passing of an element of our democracy, the peaceful transfer of power. And if there has to be a hierarchy of things that we prioritize, this would be the one we’d prioritize. It is the most dangerous threat to our democracy. That does not mean that we don’t focus on other threats.”
During his speech, President Biden also asserted that while black entrepreneurs are “just as capable” as white entrepreneurs, they don’t have lawyers or accountants.
“The data shows young black entrepreneurs are just as capable of succeeding given the chance as white entrepreneurs are,” Biden said. “But they don’t have lawyers. They don’t have, they don’t have accountants, but they have great ideas.
“Does anyone doubt this whole nation be better off from the investments those people make?” he continued. “And I promise you that’s why I set up this National Small Business Administration that’s much broader because they’re going to get those loans.”
