Democrats downplayed the rise of foreign threats and instead repeatedly talked about white supremacists and other domestic extremists Friday as they questioned Kristi Noem, who is President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
During Noem’s confirmation hearing, lawmakers suggested that extremists living in the U.S. are America’s most persistent terrorist threat. The DHS’s latest Homeland Threat Assessment makes no such statement but instead emphasizes “evolving” and “dynamic” threats from “domestic and foreign violent extremists” due to war in the Middle East and other factors.
“Both DHS and FBI have consistently said that the most persistent threat to the homeland is from U.S-based individuals or small groups radicalized by a variety of ideologies from white supremacy to ISIS to Al-Qaeda,” said Senate Homeland…
