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Is right-wing extremism the most significant domestic terror threat?

Thursday, September 17, 2020
By Jacqueline Agustin
YES

A 2019 bill drafted by Senate Democrats calls white supremacists and "other far right-wing extremists" the "most significant domestic terrorism threat" facing the U.S. The Center For Strategic and International Studies in a June review agrees. The think tank defines right-wing terrorism as threatened violence "whose goals may include racial or ethnic supremacy; opposition to government authority; anger at women; and outrage against certain policies..."

According to a draft of a Department of Homeland Security report obtained last month by Politico, white supremacist extremists are expected to remain the "most persistent and lethal threat" to the U.S. through 2021. White supremacists accounted for half of all lethal domestic extremist attacks in 2019. "When those people act out violently...they show the highest level of lethality," DHS official Ken Cuccinelli has said.

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