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ICYMI: White House rebuffed attempts by DHS to make combating domestic terrorism a higher priority
cnn.com/2019/08/07/pol…
cnn.com/2019/08/07/pol…
2/ White House officials rebuffed efforts by their colleagues at DHS for more than a year to make combating domestic terror threats, such as those from white supremacists, a greater priority as specifically spelled out in the National Counterterrorism Strategy (NCS)
3/ That's according to current and former senior administration officials as well as other sources close to the Trump administration. One sr. source: "Homeland Security officials battled the White House for more than a year to get them to focus more on domestic terrorism....
4/ "...The White House wanted to focus only on the jihadist threat which, while serious, ignored the reality that racial supremacist violence was rising fast here at home. They had major ideological blinders on."
5/ "Ultimately the White House just added one paragraph about domestic terrorism as a throw-away line," a senior source involved in the discussion told CNN.
6/ Said a current sr. admin official, "DHS is surging resources to the [domestic terrorism] issue, but they're behind the curve because of lack of support from the White House....
7/"...There's some legislative and appropriations work happening, but the reality is there won't be a FY20 budget for the department so they will have to make do."
8/ Why the White House pushed back so much is a matter of some debate. A former senior administration official noted that the White House, specifically the President, has a problem criticizing white supremacy....
9/ The official "didn't have expectation they would get behind it" -- the brief mention of domestic terrorism as a threat in the NCS -- "because the preponderance of it involves white supremacy and that's not something this administration is comfortable speaking out against..."
10/ The sr source close to the Trump administration acknowledged Trump's reluctance to criticize white supremacists was part of "an overlay" of all these discussions. "You know it will trigger the boss. Instinctively you know he's going to be averse to mentioning that."
11/ "When it became clear the White House was going to say little if anything on domestic terrorism we asked that they at least say in the Counterterrorism Strategy that there would be a subsequent domestic terrorism strategy."
But the White House would not agree to that, either
But the White House would not agree to that, either
12/ During the lengthy back and forth, one WH official proposed that the NCS focus on radical Islamists *and foreign drug dealers,* since that would please the President.
Sr source: "But those things don't go together. That was part of the warped worldview they had there."
Sr source: "But those things don't go together. That was part of the warped worldview they had there."
