‘Stain on the Soul of America’: WH Lays Out Strategy for Combating Domestic Terrorism

The 🏛️White House unveiled the first-ever “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism,” saying the threat is posing a challenge to “our national security, democracy, and unity.”

“Domestic terrorism – driven by hate, bigotry, and other forms of extremism— is a stain on the soul of America. It goes against everything our country strives for and it poses a direct challenge to our national security, democracy, and unity,” President Joe Biden said in a statement on Tuesday.

He noted the strategy “lays out a comprehensive approach to protecting our nation from domestic terrorism while safeguarding our bedrock civil rights and civil liberties – values that make us who we are as Americans.”

Biden called it “a project that should unite all Americans,” adding, “Together we must affirm that domestic terrorism has no place in our society. We must work to root out the hatreds that can too often drive violence.”

He continued, “And we must recommit to defending and protecting our basic freedoms, which belong to all Americans in equal measure, and which are not only the foundation of our democracy – they are our enduring advantage in the world.”

Organized around four pillars, the strategy focuses on “the core elements of how the U.S. Government will tackle the threat posed by domestic terrorism today.”

The first pillar includes “efforts to understand and share information regarding the full range of domestic terrorism threats.” The second involves efforts to “prevent domestic terrorists from successfully recruiting, inciting, and mobilizing Americans to violence.”