Acting DHS secretary says white supremacists are 'most persistent and lethal' threat within U.S.

(Image credit: Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images)

published 24 September 2020

Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told senators during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday that white supremacists are the "most persistent and lethal" internal threat the United States is facing.

Wolf, who has been acting head of DHS since November, said overall, the deadliest threats to the U.S. are pandemics, national disasters, and foreign adversaries, and the government "cannot ignore" anti-fascist protesters.

Earlier this month, a DHS whistleblower named Brian Murphy said Wolf instructed him to stop providing intelligence assessments on the threat of Russian interference in the United States. Murphy also alleged that Acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Ken Cuccinelli told him to change an assessment's section on white supremacy to make "the threat appear less severe" and to add information "on the prominence of violent 'left-wing' groups." Murphy said in both cases, he did not comply.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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