Aug 14, 2017 - Politics & Policy

FBI and DHS reported "persistent" white supremacy threat in May

Steve Helber / AP

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warned months ago that white supremacists "were responsible for 49 homicides in 26 attacks from 2000 to 2016 … more than any other domestic extremist movement," per Foreign Policy, which obtained the intelligence bulletin detailing the warning, entitled, "White Supremacist Extremism Poses Persistent Threat of Lethal Violence."

These kinds of attacks outnumber Islamist incidents by about 2 to 1, per the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute.

Why it matters: Candidate Trump ran on the idea that "anyone who cannot name our enemy is not fit to lead this country," as he told a rally in Ohio, but critics point out Trump's first statement on the violence in Charlottesville included a condemnation of violence on "many sides," and it took him until Monday to specifically condemn white supremacy.

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