In the wake of the ISIS-inspired terror attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve, which claimed the lives of 14 people, some of Donald Trump’s allies, including Kimberly Guilfoyle and Steve Bannon, have criticized the FBI. They claim the agency was too focused on white supremacist threats and failed to prevent the attack. The rhetoric surrounding the attack wrongly connected it to issues like unauthorized border crossings, despite the fact that the attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was a U.S. citizen and an Army veteran from Houston.
Guilfoyle and Bannon’s claims are part of a larger narrative aiming to stoke fear about Islamic terrorism, despite the fact that no lethal Islamic extremist attack had occurred on U.S. soil since 2019. They suggest that the FBI should focus more on international terrorism and less on domestic threats such as white supremacy. However, experts like Elizabeth Neumann, a former DHS official, counter that the FBI is addressing all major threats, including both foreign and domestic extremism. White supremacist violence has been a persistent issue in recent years, with an increase in such attacks from 2012 through 2019.
Guilfoyle also interviewed Kyle Seraphin, a former FBI agent, who argued that the FBI had lost focus on international terrorism, particularly Islamic extremism, in favor of addressing domestic threats. However, Seraphin’s claims ignore the fact that white supremacist groups have also been responsible for numerous attacks in the U.S. over the past decade.
Bannon’s show also featured retired Army Colonel Derek Harvey, who criticized the FBI for not focusing on the Muslim Brotherhood, despite a lack of evidence linking it to U.S. terror attacks. Critics warn that this misinformation could further fuel anti-immigrant and anti-government sentiments, potentially inspiring future violence.
In reality, terrorism-related fatalities on U.S. soil have been caused by a variety of individuals, from citizens to immigrants. Attacks such as the 2015 San Bernardino shooting and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing highlight that the terror threat has many sources, not just international extremists.
