the things i opened the show with today was talking about president biden's condemnation of white supremacist donald trump when he had an opportunity to to condemn white supremacy didn't do that but we'll leave that aside for a moment but let's listen to president biden's comments. now a rise of political extremism white supremacy domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat. to michael i want to ask you bluntly this is the president the united states talking about this for as long as i've known you and i need to acknowledge it's been for a very long time you have been on this be you have been concerned about the blind spots in our law enforcement the negligence the dereliction of responsibility in following and taking these white supremacist the neo nazi movement seriously are you comforted by what president biden has said and do you believe that what president biden has laid out. is an inflection point in this story. i certainly think it's important for the president to acknowledge that and i think that that was their primary opportunity to do that in a way that was going to

inauguration speech by contrast during debate with joe biden then president trump refused to condemn white supremacists the idea that america should be made great for white people only well it's been around for more than 150 years and it's represented by almost 200 different groups around the country today and we're not just talking about the south this mentality is widespread in places like new york in california oregon virtually every corner of the country as the riots on the united states capitol on january 6th showed it's everywhere in our military law enforcement among c.e.o.'s college professors real estate agents you name it sure the department of homeland security under the trumpet ministration added white supremacist extremism to its list of priorities threats but will that do anything today we're talking to 2 people who deeply into the american white supremacist movement as an f.b.i. agent in the 1990 s. michael german infiltrated neo nazi groups and militia groups today he's a fellow at the brennan center for justice he wrote a book on his experiences called thinking like a terrorist and i h

one of the things i opened the show with was talking about president biden's condemnation of white supremacistsdonald trump, when he had an opportunity, did not do that. let's listen to president biden's comments. >> now, the rise of political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism, we must confront and be will defeat. [applause] steve: i want to ask you bluntly. this is the president of the united states talking about this. for as long as i have known you, it has been for a very long time, you have been on this beat. concerned about the blind spots in our law enforcement, the negligence, the dereliction of responsibility in following and taking these white supremacists and neo-nazi movements seriously. are you comforted i what biden said? >> i certainly think it is important for the president to acknowledge that, and i think that was a primary opportunity to do that in a weight that was going to get this type of attention to the issue. it is easy to present white supremacists and far-right militancy as something that is on the fringe of our society. the skinhead with the swastika on hi

i want to talk to you about white supremacist violence that has been mentioned a lot.ore i get there, i am concerned with something i consider pernicious and difficult to root out, which is the realities of implicit racial bias that lead to larger systemic racism. the issue of systemic racism has become something argued over. if i can walk you through for a second, does our justice system treat people equally in this country? judge garland: sadly, and as plain to me -- it is plain to me it does not. sen. booker: i'm going to stop you there. we have a common justice system that treats you better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent because one's finances make a difference in what kind of justice one gets. judge garland: there is no question there is disparate treatment in our justice system. mass incarceration is a good example of this problem. we are incarcerating 25 -- almost 25% of the worlds population. we have something like 5% of the worlds population. i don't think that it's because americans are worse. what belies that is the disparate tr

> domestic terrorism is also an important an issue as international terrorism, whether it be white supremacist, militia extremists, sovereign citizen extremists. >> a huge chunk of those domestic terrorism investigations involve racially motivated violent extremists fueled by some kind of white supremacy. and i would say the most lethal activity over the last few years has been committed by those type of attackers. >> you just saw three different fbi directors across administrations of both parties, though all three happened to by the way be republicans as a registration matter, and you heard them, including the most recent saying the most lethal stuff comes from these white supremacist killers and terrorists. this has been around. that's the broad assessment. and then there are the more detailed specific examples when you get into polices like two florida officers found to belong to the kkk ousted in 2014, or two high-ranking police officers found to be in the white supremacist group southern independence, fired from an alabama police force. just consider the horror of a kkk member walking ar

on the capital, the department of homeland security identified racially motivated extremists, white supremacist extremists as the most persistent, lethal threat in the homeland. today it would begin to shed light on why these warnings were not heeded. the threat of right-wing, more specifically white nationalist terrorism has been growing for years. the previous administration failed to deal with it appropriately. and on january 6 without the dust we saw the results -- we saw the results. i witnessed the events firsthand from the house gallery, while the senate was counting electoral votes as required. i'm hoping the biden administration will work to do a better job of confronting this threat. which has been allowed to fester. already dhs has taken access -- action about the heightened threat from domestic terrorism. i look forward to engaging the newly confirmed secretary of homeland security on this article issue. president biden also has the office of national domestic terrorism, fbi wintertime thus conducting a comprehensive assessment of the threat. i also wish for this administration to p

you can put them into white supremacist and and -- and antigovernment types, racism and anti-semitism is at the heart of these conspiracies. they believe that jews use black people to take out the black to take out the white race, it is ludicrous but that is what we are dealing with. >> with that i yield back. >> we recognize the gentleman from louisiana for five minutes. >> thank you. i am humbled to return to the committee and continued to working to make sure the safety and security of our nation. i'll welcome the new members to our committee. we seek nonpartisan solutions to challenges that face our country. as i resume my duties as the ranking member on the subcommittee, there is a lot of work to be done to secure our nation. i look forward to working with my colleagues to make that happen. the biden administration has unfortunately implemented many dangerous policies. the proposal of amnesty for 11 million illegal immigrants will allow individuals who have committed crimes to receive the benefits and privileges that come with citizenship. this could be at the expense of hard-wor

shooter had white supremacist sympathies. many in el paso blamed the president for encouraging that hate that led to the massacre in their city. >> he sort of to me had the rhetoricd of white supremacist. i'm not saying that he's a racist, but his words certainly arerd racist. >> if you look at the border and you look at the hundreds of thousands of people that aret invading. that's an invasion. i don't care what theyat say. peopleey hate the word invasion but that's what it is. >> andit that same word invasio featured prominently in a document the el paso shooter allegedly published online before he opened fire. the diatribe said his intention was to attack hispanic invaders. he even drove hundreds of miles across texas to target hispanics and african-americans who got in his way. in the document, the shooter said he hadn't been inspired by president trump. others begged to differ. >> the president has always been someone that people look to for leadership. i have tried my best to excuse him of certain things, but there's ju

leaked messages show his senior policy adviser stephen miller is an admirer of white supremacist theoriesterm racist, chris, has become a label simply to try to silence and punish. >> but miller has been accused of bringing racism to the white house. he helped draft the so-called muslim ban to prevent people from muslim countries from entering the united states. and in 2015, according to emails obtained by the southern poverty law center, miller encouraged editors at the right wing media group breitbart to read a white supremacist author and write more about the pitfalls of immigration. as his speech writer, it's miller who sometimes puts the words in president trump's mouth. >> make no mistake, when the commander in chief is going to espouse some of these ideas, it's deeply problematic. >> because the world is listening. >> the world is listening. >> we asked the white house to respond to jonathan green blatt's comments, which they declined to do. we also asked if the president or his advicers were familiar with renaud camud's replacement theory. this is the statement the white house sen

sheila jackson lee saying now is the time for action. >> as the fbi director said unequivocally, white supremacists are the most lethal threat for domestic violence in our country. among domestic terrorists white supremacy has no equivalent. our current approach is not working. enough is enough. it is time for the action, and i look forward to hearing from today's panelists on what federal law enforcement must do to swiftly address the rise of domestic terrorism. >> so but one of the witnesses at the hearing today, the former fbi special agent mike german, saying the justice department and the fbi chose not to prioritize these kinds of cases. >> the problem is that the justice department and the fbi choose not to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of white supremacists and far right violence as a matter of policy and practice. instead the justice department and fbi use these terrorism authorities most aggressively against groups that rarely if ever commit fatal attacks. >> let's bring mike german back live to discuss some of this. so mike, you say that the justice department and the fbi,

>> white supremacists. by. >> and stand by, they did. so far, at least six individual members of this chauvinistic white supremacist hate group have been charged with coordinating part of the january 6th attack on our capitol and our democracy. and yet, evidence of their part in a conspiracy to stop the lawful transfer of power has not been enough to keep these insurrectionists in custody. dozens of people arrested for their actions on january 6th have been released on bond. if a deadly insurrection wasn't enough, what will it take before we as a nation take the threat of these violent white supremacist groups seriously? as canada took swift action this week, our own federal law enforcement ordered a, quote, review of the problem. to perhaps be addressed by more resources some time in the nebulous future. you might think that the fbi would already have a good grasp of the depth of white supremacist activity seeing as the leader of the proud boys was reportedly one of their most prolific informants. but the

i think everyone recognizes we have an issue in this country with white supremacists, and there are white supremacists throughout society, but it is particularly troublesome when they are in law enforcement or the military because, as ben mentioned earlier, those are people who have the opportunity to use lethal force. we are a country that is built on a history of enslaving people, and we have to recognize that even though there is not slavery today, there are still -- there is still systemic racism throughout our society, and it is not enough to be not a racist. we need to be actively antiracist if we are going to have a world of equality and justice. host: mr. cohen, you had said the supreme court was the start of this idea of qualified immunity. has there been an interest from the current makeup of the court to take on these issues? >> well, as jerry mentioned, both sotomayor and clarence thomas want to revisit it. i believe -- revisit it and, i believe, overturn it. sotomayor has said that qualified immunity tells the police they can shoot first and think second, and it tells the pub

homeland security threat assessment identified racial motivated by the extremist specifically white supremacist has the most legal rent in the moment . today will begin to shed light on by. it is irrefutable fact is that the threat and more specifically, the white nationalist terrorism have been going on forg years. [inaudible]. the previous administration failed to address thisel threat appropriately. and on january 6, we saw the result of white fear of the united states capitol party did eyewitness the events unfold firsthand . and for my view where we had observed the counting of the electoral votes is required by thehe constituti. i'm hopeful that the biden administration will work to do a better job confronting this threat. it is been allowed to fester and emit encourage in recent years. an already, dhs has taken action as the department issued of morning last week. about the heightened threats from domestic terrorism. i look forward to engaging the secretary of homeland security . on this critical issue. president biden also asked the office of the director of national intelligence, dhs a

tattoos can be a calling card for white supremacists and extremists in the military, a way to grow their own ranks in secret amidst a nationwide surge in white nationalist activity. but according to a department of defense report on extremism obtained by cnn, some of the recruiting tactics are more brazen and more open. one example in the report, a military member and co-founder of the neo-nazi group known as atomwaffen division told another member he was open about everything with his friends at training. "they love me too because i'm a funny guy," he wrote in a message. the defense department determined that others find each other through obscure fascist symbols on t-shirts or simply connect on social media and messaging apps. u.s. troops are primary targets for many extremist groups who want their training, their combat experience and the legitimacy they bring to an organization. the report found that members of one far right extremist group shared military manuals including an army manual on ieds, improvised explosive devices, on the encrypted messaging app known as telegram. the cap

sometimes for many, many former white supremacists, you have moments where they start thinking. but their life is still in the wrong direction, and you may want to take action. this is a tricky part. these trigger moments, key moments exist in many people's lives better in these extremist groups. it takes a lot of courage actually to leave those groups. ultimately you need the encouragement from the society of their. the big problem we have, who is going to talk to a nazi? who likes nazis? nobody. who likes the kkk? nobody. you have to talk to somebody who you know actually hates you, many people say, probably not. so many people stay longer. it is like an abusive relationship. it is hard to start over new. i am in this movement for 15 years already. i live it, i brief at. i live in a bubble -- i breathe it. i didn't eat certain foods from southern company is because i thought they were the enemy. i was an anti-semite, holocaust denier, all this nonsense, and i was so caught in that, you know, that i couldn't see anything else. it was a cult. you wake up with it. it is pressure,

, tweeting "the answer is not to give more money to a different group of white supremacist whose job at just two days after capital police officer died after last month's speech, before he was hired by the dcc. there was out outrage and critics are also slamming his comments of last summer when he seemed to excuse riots, tweeting "i don't understand why you can't condemn violent police and acknowledge looting as a vital form of social protest." tomi, i'd like to start with you here. your reaction to all of his comments that i just read after the riots, after 140 capitol police officers were injured, three of whom passed away, to go by suicide, depending the capital, is now employer. your thoughts? >> tomi: few things fire me up more than when people disrespect law enforcement but the double standard is excruciating, the democrats spent a couple days honoring law enforcement because they could use it as a tool to go after trump supporter's. all conservatives of note condemned everything that happened on january 6th. the democrats have someone like this at the helm is discussing and it

they were seeking the death penalty under a white supremacist terrorist? >> i understand the question. maybe i didn't understand it before. what i'm trying to say is if there is a policy decision made by the president and announced by the president, he certainly has the authority to direct, and nothing inappropriate about it, it's within his authority to require an across-the-board moratorium. what i was talking about was not a decision by the president in any particular case or the direction of how any particular case should go forward but of a moratorium which would apply as a policy across the board. the supreme court has held that the death penalty is constitutional but it is not required, and that's within the discretion of the president. >> before i move on from the oklahoma city case, let me commend you again for your work it and say that i believe timothy mcvey deserved the death penalty. another one is a white supremacist in south carolina who went into a church and killed 19 americans. he received the death penalty. do you believe that was a mist

from white supremacist to peace activist. we take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. ♪ it is over a month since the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol and the effects continue to mount. the senate trials for impeachment starts tuesday. the fbi investigation with arrests across the country. growing calls from congress for tougher laws on domestic terrorism. good morning. it is sunday, february 7, 2021. these are the effects we would like to spend the first hour on the program asking you, what is the cause? what are the reasons behind the rise in domestic terrorism in the u.s.? republicans the line is (202)-748-8000, democrats is (202)-748-8001, independent (202)-748-8002. you can also text us at (202)-748-8003 and on twitter it is @c-spanwj and facebook at facebook.com/c-span. we are looking at potentially tougher laws on domestic terrorism. the washington post has the headline, bipartisan support emerges for domestic terror bills as experts warned the threat m

tell us about that. .. , many former white supremacists, you have moments where they start thinking. but their life is still in the wrong direction, and you may want to take action. this is a tricky part. these trigger these key moments exist and many peoples lives in these extremist groups and it takes a lot of courage to leave those groups you also need to have the encouragement from the society and the big problem we have isur who will talk to a nazi and of course nobody but who likes the kkk? nobody.. would you go talk to somebody who you know that actually hates you and probably not so you stay longer like in an abusive relationship. you stayta because it's too hard to start over new. i was in this 15 years and this moment and i live and i read it and i live in this bubble and i excluded everything from my life, mainstream music, mainstream everything and certain companies because i thought they were led by the enemy and was also a holocaust denier and thought it was a conspiracy and they wanted to take over the world and it was nonsense but i was so caught in that, you know tha

the riot at the capitol was a white supremacist insurrection. the more absurd the claim is, the more hysterically demand that you repeat it. at the moment, democrats are fixated on forcing you to agree that yes, january 6 was a racist event. it's been fascinating to see who in america complies with this demand, to say that out loud. in a speech this week, liz cheney of wyoming decided to obey. here she is talking about the riot at the capitol. watch. >> it's very important for us to ignore the temptation to look away. it's very important especially for us as republicans to make clear that we aren't the party of white supremacy. >> tucker: oh, so it's very important, she says, to make it clear that as republicans we are not the party of white supremacy. okay. but who claims otherwise? who is saying the republican party is the party of white supremacy? it's a corporate party, sure. it's the embarrassing party often. it's a stupid party definitely. the white supremacy party? only democrats and their propagandists and the media say that and now liz

whether knowingly or unknowingly, they are pushing a narrative that allows a white supremacist view of the world today, and that's a problem. a, it's historical and b, it's justifying white supremacy. i do see these organizations as really problematic, but i think they have always been problematic for a variety of reasons. i don't know if it's a good answer, but it's an answer, i guess. caroline: that's the best we can do sometimes, right. great. i'll end on one last question then, i think that kind of fits into what you were just talking about, is do you think that there were a few quote unquote legendary confederate commanders, robert everyone lee, stone wall jackson, jeb stuart who have come generalized in uplifting with the views of confederate soldiers as a lost cause memory -- dr. domby: say it one more time. caroline: the heroic connection of connecting general soldiers to the reputations of these great generals. dr. domby: yeah, the generals are clearly -- are clearly become examples, right, they have become the exemplars and they're part of the lost cause. and they're key to t

threats faces the country from national security standpoint is home grown extremism, specifically white supremaciststs. if we can't even agree to that factual statement which is very straightforward, there should be no daylight between anyone, when it comes to national security, this isn't a partisan issue. when you have one side that refuses to admit the factual premise that white supremacy is real and the threat to our national security, how do we come together to combat it? how do we protect this country? right now we can't because we have a good part of congress that is refusing to even agree to the most basic straightforward facts. >> it is a problem. congressman, i suspect if you go into the offices of the republican members, they have fox news on churn, that when they go home, that's what they're watching, watching right wing media, reading breitbart or whatever. is part of the problem the in sen tifs your colleagues on the other side of the aisle have are what media people say, fears are all about that, because that's where their voters get their information as well. so they can't help you,

tell us about that. >> sometimes we call them former white supremacist, former nazis.ou have moments where they start thinking that their life is going in a wrong direction and you may want to take action. and this is a tricky part. these trigger moments, key moments exist enmany peoples lives. it take as lot of courage actually to leave those groups and you also need the encouragement from the society out there. the big, big problem we have who likes nazis? of course nobody. who likes the kkk? nobody. so would you go to talk to somebody who you know actually hates you? well, probably not. so you stay a little bit longer. it's like an abusive relationship. you know that it's toxic but you stay because it's just so hard to start over new. i'm in this movement for 15 years already. i live it, i breathe it, i live in a bubble. i exclude everything from my life, mainstream music, mainstream food. i boycotted certain companies because i thought they were led by the enemy. and i was so caught in that, you know, that i couldn't see anything else. and you just wake up with it

my question is, we talk about white supremacists. ith ananarchists? the overthrow of the government, which is what the attack was, more like waco or anti-government violent intersecting with violent supremacists. >> it's not unusual. if you rewind to the 1990s, both former military members. kevin, the person who put together a bomb at martin luther king parade luckily detected before it could go on. a former military member. so there's always been a lot of overlap in these spaces. i think you could look at it as really a venn diagram that you see several things overlap. anti-government militias, white supremacist groups from highly organized to very disorganized and almost online, which would be the acceleration folks who believe a race war needs to be initiated so that they can essentially bring a second civil war and parallel to that, the conspiracy space. this is qanon, certain adherents will often overlap and i think that's what you saw at the senate chambers was confluence of all of those actors pouring in the doors. didn't neces

, wit the anti-semites. >> there are widget omit white supremacist sympathizers that sit at the heartf the cor of the republican caucus. >> there is a fine integration between white supremacist logic the vitriol insist of perfect through the mouths of some gop star words. >> what sad little people. lit see very clear here because i don't want anyone to misunderstand what we're talkin about tonight. racism is repugnant to every american of every race should enjoy the freedoms established by our constitution and have a fair chance to succeed. we have no patience or sympathy for anyone who promotes racial bigotry. but the hard left and their supporters in the democratic party now are not interested in giving americans of any race a chance to succeed, they know their policies don't work, and they never will. so how do you win elections whe you can't govern? you appeal to hatred into fear, and to shame. joe biden has been in washingto now for almost 50 years if you can believe it. he knows that republicans aren' racist, he knows this country i not systemic releases to be right, but he goes

he went on tv and said there's no evidence that white supremacists were involved in the insurrection of the u.s. capitol. well, all these law enforcement officials testified yesterday said absolutely yes they were involved and behind it. but how do you deal with the revisionism? >> well, john, one of our real challenges is the disagreement about basic facts. tens of millions of americans in recent polls have said that they think the assault on the capitol was carried out by leftists. by antifa, by folks who were merely dressed up as trump supporters. i'll tell you, everything that i've seen and heard strongly proves that the folks who were carrying confederate battle flags, the folks wearing signs and shirts and flags that supported both donald trump and much more extremist views much many of them white supremacists and nationalists, folks who held extreme political views, were central to the events at the capitol. they are also among the most threatening folks in terms of our domestic security. i'll remind you, the governor of michigan was nearly kidnapped and killed by a group of a

there are, in fact, adequate and expensive police powers to address white supremacist violence.r 50 domestic terrorism statutes that criminalize domestic terrorism and material support for it. there's a plethora of hate crime laws, but law enforcement could use. but historically and traditionally and through to today, that's not what they have done. they have not focused their resources and investigative and prosecutorial powers, which are expansive -- in fact, we think overly expansive in ways they have been interpreted and applied and used. and those police powers are exacerbated by structural racism means that the authorities that exist for domestic terrorism investigations and prosecutions have been targeted and used harmfully against black and brown communities, communities of color, and passage of the new law as some in congress might be contemplating, the biden administration, will actually only worsen the harms. and it's unnecessary. >> professor, what about that? we do have a history of going after domestic terrorists. i think about the department of justice itself. it

not only in some cases white supremacist views. in cases where their interest with policing people of color but also in their extremist views that we know now and we knew even beforehand were suggesting leading to violence. some of these things are not that hard to find even with deplatforming of groups like qanon groups and unlawful militia groups. you still have individuals who are posting things regularly that reflect their views. it is a touchy thing because we respect first met met agencies and departments to tackle that problem and eliminate it within its ranks. tom: general taylor, let me ask you. you mentioned the role of state and law enforcement in addressing the domestic terrorism threat. i would like to ask you to elaborate on this and discuss in particular the roles they and law enforcement is going to need as we go forward with this challenge. we have spoken about the federal world. there is an and are mostly important role state and local law enforcement needs to play. can you give us more insight on what that is goi

but right now they hear that oh, white supremacists and other white hate groups are the threat, and they feel, wrongly, like that's a bias when indeed it's the reality. for that point, gene, in your analysis, we did want to show something we've put together briefly that will be familiar to the congresswoman as well which is every living fbi director speaking to this point lk. >> much of our history is not pretty. law enforcement enforced the status quo, a status quo that was often brutally unfair to disfavored groups. >> domestic terrorism is almost as important an issue as domestic terrorism. a sovereign citizen extremist. >> a huge chunk of those domestic terrorism investigations involve racially motivated violent extremists fueled by some kind of white supremacy. and i would say that the most lethal activity over the last few years has been committed by those type of attackers. >> gene, all violent hate is wrong, but there are fbi directors emphasizing the larger problem with violent height haiti in the united states today from white thugs, killers, terrorists. >> yeah, that's just a

that's a really good place to start to illustrate the point that every time acts of violence white supremacist violence have occurred the response has actually been to pass laws and legislation in this case it was the end of the terrace if i could get penalty at the time merrily her brown and black community say that that statute of sensibly asked to address the problem of white silence only for minority communities and so that's really i think the fear that many of us who've been seeing these long term patterns have about how this particular moments may be again trying to utilize to push these agendas that are ultimately not going to address the root causes of white supremacy the real problem of white supremacist violence that many of us who work side by side with movements like movements or black lives and muslim communities have had we've had longstanding concerns about the problem of white supremacists infiltration of law enforcement including and the halls of congress i'm so i think our our our our real concern is how what do we need to be doing. as a government and law enforcement to pro

there were lo laws that go afte the white supremacists.u see a gap in current laws that prevent us from going after the people that attacked the capitol some. >> there's quite a few. and one that comes to mind. you have a situation where somebody like a guy carries out a deadly attack that kills nine black americans in a church, never being charged with an act of terrorism. and they cannot because he used a small weapon and light arm. and you have a white supremacist that was on the edge of carrying out a majorer attack that got 13 years in jail. and again, the government could not charge him with a act of domestic terrorism. if they could, he would be into hind bars longer. while we have definitions we are lacking a lot of potential charges here. >> i'm confused now. you said, we have definitions of domestic terrorism, but we don't have the laws that allow us to charge. >> correct. >> don't those -- >> we don't have charges in the statutes. >> aren't they part of the statutes that allow us to charge it? how does it happen? >> it's a signi

and so that led to fertile recruiting ground for white supremacists.en you follow up with an internal report. what did you find? what was your takeaway in this report? daryl: the threat landscape was going to be changing in the coming months and years because the u.s. counterterrorism strategy predominantly focused on al qaeda and preventing the next 9/11 attack. but we have a threat here within that is persistent, and its attacks and plotting and was growing year after year. soledad: why do you think there wasn't an effort to start looking at white supremacy as an important and dangerous area of growth when it came to domestic terrorism? like, it just seems like a big miss. daryl: people in the law enforcement intelligence that really wasn't worth focusing and emphasizing, because of all of this political and social blowback. soledad: in the past year, i would say, have you have you seen a change in how sort of national security and maybe government forces generally and law enforcement generally have thought about the domestic terror risk? daryl: last

white supremacist there is no

would you agree that this attack involved white supremacist and extremist groups? >> yes. >> yes. >> so i am going to speak with senator amy klobuchar just ahead. but -- there's always a but or a yet, right? the enablers of the big lie, they just keep trying to bury the truth. exhibit a. ron johnson. doing it even after everyone, everything we all saw with our own eyes. we saw it. you saw it. you heard it, what they were saying to some of the officers. you saw the paraphernalia, you saw the racist insignias on some of their shirts. ron johnson wants you to believe that the white supremacists and terrorists who stormed the capitol were just friendly. how friendly does that look to you, that video? yet the senator is spreading lies, reading a conspiracy theory-laced article and entering it right into the record. >> many of the marches were families with small children. many were elderly, overweight or just tired and frail. some obviously didn't fit in, and he describes four different types of people. plainclothes militants, agents provocateurs, fake trump protesters

members -- prosecuting hundreds of cases against white supremacist members of the ku klux klan. with the mission to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all americans, particularly some of the most vulnerable numbers of -- members of our society. that mission, on the website of the department's civil rights division, remains urgent, because we do not yet have equal justice. communities of color and other minorities still face discrimination and housing -- in housing of education -- housing, education and in the justice system. they bear the brunt of the harm caused by the pandemic, pollution and climate change. 150 years after the department's founding, battling extremist attacks on our democratic institutions also remains central to the departments mission. from 1995 to 1997, i supervised a prosecution of the perpetrators of the oklahoma city federal building, who sought to spark a revolution that would topple the federal government. if confirmed, i will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the capitol on january 6, a heinous attack th

and within the racially motivated violent extremist bucket, people prescribing to some kind of white supremacisttainly the bigges biggest chunk of that. >> reporter: a department of homeland security whistle-blower accused dhs officials of blocking a report. when it finally came out it called white supremacy the most looet and persistent threat in the homeland. >> we talk about white white stre supremacists but also -- >> reporter: "the new york times" reports that trump aides suppressed the term domestic terror. according to law enforcement officials barr would encourage prosecutors to be more aggressive in bringing cases against rioters and was frustrated when they didn't. the administration looks for links to international terrorist groups. barr told cnn in a statement there was no prioritization. they already had a program, he said. i wanted a comparable one for antifa and antifa like groups. deergd study, in the first eight months of 2020, white supremacists and like groups accounted for two-thirds of terrorist attacks. fbi director wray agreed that antifa was, in his words, a real thing. s

we understand the much -- most of the domestic terrorism is witnessed -- rooted in white supremacists -- white supremacism. african-americans have witnessed acts of violence for many decades. in fact, much of the domestic violence that we have seen over the years has taken place and has been rooted in white supremacy. what we witnessed on january 6 was no different. we thought it was important for the organization to be engaged. we have a good -- we have a department headed up by our interim counsel. we engaged outside counsel as we began to explore a week after the january 6 insurrection how we could ensure that people could be held accountable. let us be clear. if we allowed this to be addressed, we would open the door for future more violent activities. for african-americans, we were witnessing a history of domestic in a democracy we settle our differences at the ballot box. and any time members of congress are unable to carry out their constitutional duty because of white supremacist domestic terrorists, we witness not only the subverting of our democracy, the ending of our democr

of all these things are now rounds, senior white supremacist or racist. i hope that's not the direction that they're going with us, viewing as an honorable man,'s a lot of respect across the aisle. it's unsettling. i hope people understand that what the stand-down orders, there is something comforting with it. what happens they will train you on this case and might be diversity training, and the question is, what's going to be part of the curriculum? will be critical race theory trash? all white people are evil or is it going to be truth? where all gods children created in his image and created equal. that's the question. right now, we have to do our job as americans and put pressure on the pentagon to defend the people who have been defending us for generations. >> laura: yeah, i'm sorry to interrupt you, but i don't want to spend a single u.s. taxpayer dollars on blm style curriculum for the u.s. military. which, last time i checked, none of you carried white color one person is to the next if you guys are working together. in a military operation wheth

are you | willing tonight to condemn white supremacists— willing tonight to condemn white supremacistsnd militia groups and to say— supremacists and militia groups and to say that — supremacists and militia groups and to say that they— supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need _ supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to _ supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand - supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand downj to say that they need to stand down and not _ to say that they need to stand down and not add — to say that they need to stand down and not add to— to say that they need to stand down and not add to the _ to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence - to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in - to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a - and not add to the violence in a number— and not add to the violence in a number of— and not add to the violence in a number of these _ and not add to the violence in a number of these citie