Threat facing US now since 9/11 shifted to domestic extremism: DHS Sec

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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated on Sunday that the risks confronting the United States in the 21 years since the September 11 attacks have evolved from concerns about "international terrorists" to growing concerns about domestic extremism.

“The threat landscape has evolved considerably over the last 20 years,” Mayorkas said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart.” 

“Back when 9/11 occurred, in those years we were very focused on the foreign terrorist, the individual who sought to do a severe harm to enter the United States and do us harm,” Mayorkas continued, speaking at the site of the World Trade Center.

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“We are seeing an emerging threat, of course, over the last several years of the domestic violent extremist,” Mayorkas said.

“The individual here in the United States radicalized to violence by a foreign terrorist ideology, but also an ideology of hate, anti-government sentiment, false narratives propagated on online platforms, even personal grievances.”

Mayorkas earlier described internal extremism as the country's largest terror-related concern, comments made less than three months after the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. He is one of several Democrats who have raised concerns about domestic extremist threats.

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In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," which aired on Sunday, Vice President Harris labeled domestic terrorism "very dangerous", saying it makes the country "weaker".

Regarding domestic threats, Harris explained that they are equal to or greater than those the US faced after 9/11 from foreign terrorists, adding, “We don’t compare the two in the oath” to protect the country.

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, stated on Sunday that he is concerned about domestic threats, while the threat of terrorism has "diminished" in his opinion.

“The stunning thing to me is here we are 20 years later, and the attack on the symbol of our democracy was not coming from terrorists, but it came from literally insurgents attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

In May, the House nearly unanimously enacted legislation to establish domestic terrorism offices across the federal government. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) was the lone Republican in the House to vote in favor of the bill, while others in his conference claimed it unfairly targeted Americans.