Fmr DHS Official: Bulletin on Threat Level ‘Extremely Serious’
U.S. on highest level of political stress-index since American Civil War
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) raised the national threat level of political violence in the United States last week, on the same day that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband was severely beaten in what appears to be a politically motivated attack.
The new bulletin comes just ahead of this year's midterm elections and notes potential targets for domestic terrorist-based violence includes political candidates.
"Well, Jonathan, we should read the warning extremely seriously. This isn’t the first time that DHS or the FBI had made this warning,” former DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor said in an appearance on host Jonathan Capehart's MSNBC program. “In fact, as recently as August they were warning that there was a spike in threats to public servants, an increase in chatter about armed rebellion and civil war. Months prior to that, they were doing the same.
“Now, I don’t want to scare people, Jonathan, but look, right now we are witnessing a large spike in terms of volume towards public servants that we have seen in modern history,” added Taylor, who served at DHS during the Trump administration but has since become a persistent Trump critic. “Now, I mentioned the word 'chatter,' that's a word that broke into the public lexicon after 9/11 when we talked about terrorists communicating with each other. We are seeing unprecedented levels of domestic terrorism chatter in the United States right now, so much so that every FBI field office has an investigation into domestic terrorism across the country.
“The result? There's been a tenfold increase in threats to members of Congress. As Mary knows and as you know, these people are changing their votes because of it, they're resigning because of it,” he said, referring to fellow guest Mary McCord, a former top Justice Department official in the Obama administration. “It's become exceptionally serious. And it’s not just members of Congress, it is also local officials who report a huge increase in threats.”
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