The FBI now views white supremacism and other "racially motivated violent extremism" as serious as foreign-born terrorism.
FBI Director Christopher Wray informed the country of his bureau's new focus on Wednesday, stating that homegrown terrorism is now a "national threat priority" for 2020, one that's “on the same footing" as the dangers posed by ISIS.
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"We remain concerned that groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and al Qaeda have the intent to carry out large-scale attacks in the U.S," he added.
Wray also pointed out that racially motivated attacks were the "primary source of ideologically-motivated lethal incidents and violence" in 2018 and 2019. The FBI considers them to be the most lethal of all domestic extremism since 2001.
"They choose easily accessible weapons — a car, a knife, a gun, maybe an IED they can build crudely off the internet — and they choose soft targets," the FBI director said, according to KUTV. "That threat is what we assess is the biggest threat to the homeland right now."
The news comes a day after Patrick Wood Crusius was indicted on hate crimes and firearm charges after killing 22 people at a Texas Walmart last August. He opened fire on the Walmart as "a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas. They are the instigators, not me. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by the invasion," he wrote in a document he uploaded online.
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