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Bennet, Democratic senators press Trump administration over down-playing ‘far-right extremism’

By Ernest Luning 08/22/2017 | updated 8 years ago

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is among two dozen Democrats pressing the Trump administration over its response to domestic terrorism, including what the lawmakers called an apparent de-emphasis on “far-right extremism.”

A vehicle assault associated with a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left one woman dead and more than a dozen people injured “was seemingly not just an ugly display of racist violence, it was likely also an incident of domestic terrorism,” the senators wrote in a letter to the acting head of the Department of Homeland Security on Friday.

Even as the United States faces “the problem of growing racial, religious and even political hatred,” the senators wrote, they say they’re concerned DHS “may not be adequately addressing one of the most significant threats of domestic terrorism.”

Bennet and the other senators – including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York – ask DHS Acting Secretary Elaine Duke to explain the department’s decision earlier this year to cancel funding for Life After Hate, an organization that works to rehabilitate former neo-Nazis. “[I]t now appears the focus on far-right extremism has been significantly reduced, if not completely eliminated,” they wrote. “This is particularly troubling in light of long-standing concerns that the (DHS grant) program is almost exclusively focused on the Muslim-American community.”

The senators ask Duke to clarify a report that Trump transition team aide Katharine Gorka helped steer DHS’s Countering Violent Extremism grants away from the group toward organizations combating “radical Islamic terrorism.” (She’s married to Sebastian Gorka, a controversial White House aide accused of having ties to far-right extremist groups.)

DHS spokeswoman Anna Franko said funding decisions were based on proposals’ “effectiveness, sustainability and engagement with law enforcement,” not because of the “ideological focus” of specific organizations, Vermont website VTDigger reported.

The letter from the Democratic senators also charges President Trump “kept silent” after the bombing of a Minnesota mosque in early August and reiterates criticism of Trump’s shifting response to the Charlottesville violence.

“Far-right extremist groups, including neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, white supremacists, and other groups motivated by racial and ethnic hatred, present a significant risk of violence and domestic terrorism. It is critical that the Administration’s policies and priorities reflect this risk, and protect all Americans from violence and domestic terrorism,” the senators wrote.

Ernest Luning

Reporter

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