Thread by @jseldin

"Lawlessness has festered in too many of our communities" @HomelandKen tells Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee

"The department will always uphold the right to peacefully protest, but there is no right to loot, to burn or to assault others"

"President Trump has made it clear that we cannot and will not allow acts of violence, intimidation or chaos to prevail in American streets" per @DHSgov @HomelandKen

"The Department of homeland security is proud to participate in implementing such policies"

re #Election2020 - "Our goal at DHS, our fundamental goal, is to ensure that American voters decide American elections" per @HomelandKen "As we sit here in September of 2020, it seems an important point worth reiterating"

"We take all election-related threats seriously..." @FBI Dir. Christopher Wray tells Senate lawmakers "We have not seen historically any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort... We have seen voter fraud at the local level from time to time"

"It's on our radar" @FBI's Wray adds of mail-in ballots/voter fraud

"Certainly to change a federal election outcome by mounting that kind of fraud at scale would be a major challenge for an adversary" he says, adding FBI remains vigilant

Who's in charge of #Election2020 security?

"We all work together. We all have lead in different aspects of the problem" per @FBI's Wray, saying FBI takes lead on malign foreign influence & investigation #cyber intrusions into election infrastructure

"It's a challenge" for Americans to recognize malign foreign influence campaigns, per @FBI's Wray

On when, how, where to vote, results "It's very important Americans get that information from their official state or local official website" he says

As far as news, "I would encourage ppl to be critical thinkers & to get their news from a variety of sources...be a skeptical, discerning electorate, which I think is the best defense against malign foreign influence & disinformation" per @FBI's Wray

"The people who are clearly violating federal law, you know, #IEDs, molotov cocktails, specific targeting of law enforcement, arsons of gvt facilities & businesses-who those people are, that's our priority" per @FBI's Wray

"We have certainly seen a number of violent anarchist extremists participating in that mix" per @FBI's Wray

"#Antifa is a real thing. It is not a fiction" per @FBI's Wray "We have seen organized tactical activity at both the local & regional level. We have seen antifa adherents coalescing & working together in what I would describe as small groups & nodes"

"We have a number of predicated investigations into violent anarchist extremists,some of whom operate thru these nodes & subscribe to or self identify w/anarchist extremism including antifa" per @FBI's Wray "We will not hesitate to aggressively investigate that kind of activity"

"We have been looking at their funding, their tactics, their logistics, their supply chains & we're going to pursue all available charges" per @FBI's Wray

"In addition, to that group [#antfia], there are what I would describe as more militia types, and we've got plenty of those" per @FBI's Wray "...a number of investigations into those as well"

But @FBI's Wray warns putting all of these groups into "nice, neat, clean buckets is a bit of challenge"

"One of the things we see more & more in the counterterrorism space is ppl who assemble together in some kind of mishmash - a bunch of different ideologies"

"It's almost a salad bar of ideologies" per @FBI's Wray "What they're really about is the violence and we are not going to stand for the violence"

"#China's a major threat. They're a rising power. And they have every intention of trying to rival & surpass us" per @HomelandKen "They have stolen our intellectual property...We also face them them trying to exercise influence vis a vis money & their media enterprises"

.@HomelandKen says #China carries out influence efforts "much more overtly than other countries are able to"

#Election2020-"The way #China acts in that arena is different than #Russia & #Iran in part bcs they have so many more levers" per @HomelandKen citing trade/economy

China "taking on false narratives aimed at the #UnitedStates very overtly..spreading them thru their media outlets"

With #Russia #China #Iran "certainly there is an effort to sow upheaval & discord, and as we've seen around the country discord & upheaval can lead to dangerous, violent criminal activity" per @FBI's Wray

#AQAP attack on @NASPCOLA - "They found a loophole. The loophole's been closed" per National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Dir. Christopher Miller

.@FBI's Wray notes #SaudiArabia also has a role to play & has been cooperative

Protests turned violent-"The places that have been most effective in...preventing those bad actors from hijacking otherwise peaceful protests has been quick, prompt, robust partnership between federal, state & local law enforcement" per @FBI's Wray

"I would double down on the [@FBI] director's comment about the necessity of state, local & federal cooperation" per @HomelandKen

"Where you see ready, smooth cooperation at the professional level, we're not talking about mayors and city councils, we're talking about when they don't interfere with their police's ability to interact w/DoJ & DHS, that's where you see success" per @HomelandKen

"It's a peace thru strength approach" per @HomelandKen "It isn't that we want to engage in the battles. It's that we want to deter them & allow the peaceful protesting to go on"

"We all respect our legal boundaries" per @HomelandKen

"The leaves many people sometimes to be frustrated about why we might not be doing more" he says

Racially motivated violent extremists pose the greatest threat to the homeland-"It's been the position of the Department of Homeland Security for some time" per @HomelandKen "It has not been changed..."

"It isn't a belief. It's just looking at the data" per @HomelandKen "When white supremacists act as terrorists more people per incident are killed"

"We have not softened the language" adds @HomelandKen, denying whistleblower allegation that he ordered language in a @DHSgov assessment to be watered down

Forced hysterectomies by @ICEgov in #Georgia?

"Those are shocking allegations" per @HomelandKen "I immediately dispatched a team from outside of ICE, inclu a doctor from the Coast Guard, an atty & 1 member of my staff who's a retired Army nurse, as well, to review the records"

"At this stage, the inspector general is still doing a more in-depth review, but at this stage the documentation indicates that there were, over the course of 4 years, 2 hysterectomies performed on 2 women" per @HomelandKen

#Iran threat - "A lot of times the Iranian bark is louder than its bite, and we want to keep it that way" per @Nctc Dir. Miller "It's still, obviously, one of our principle threats"

Biggest threat to #Election2020 - #Russia #China #Iran?

"I don't think I could really rank them" per @FBI Dir Christopher Wray "All 3 are ones that we're very concerned about in different ways. So, it's not really an apple to apple comparison"

#Protests - "We see this almost recycling of criminals because they walk out in so many jurisdictions whether it's #NewYork or #Portland" on bail, per @HomelandKen "The notion that anti-bail legislation that is somehow a reform...honestly escapes me"