Democrats downplayed the rise of foreign threats and instead repeatedly talked about white supremacists and other domestic extremists Friday as they questioned Kristi Noem, who is President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
During Noem’s confirmation hearing, lawmakers suggested that extremists living in the U.S. are America’s most persistent terrorist threat. The DHS’s latest Homeland Threat Assessment makes no such statement but instead emphasizes “evolving” and “dynamic” threats from “domestic and foreign violent extremists” due to war in the Middle East and other factors.
“Both DHS and FBI have consistently said that the most persistent threat to the homeland is from U.S-based individuals or small groups radicalized by a variety of ideologies from white supremacy to ISIS to Al-Qaeda,” said Senate Homeland Security Ranking Member Gary Peters of Michigan, a Democrat. Peters asked Noem how she would “address this threat of U.S.-based terrorists.”
Noem said that illegal immigration is “the number one threat to our homeland security,” adding there is an increase of illegal border crossers on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist “since Joe Biden has been president.”
“But also, we need to focus on domestic terrorism and homegrown terrorism, [which are] on the rise,” Noem added. She cited, as an example, the New Year’s Day attack by Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen who struck and killed 15 people with a truck in New Orleans in the name of ISIS before police killed him.
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Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who brought up white supremacist attacks in recent years, said that “domestic violent extremism is the most lethal and persistent threat to our security.”
The DHS’s 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment, published in October, listed the 2024 election, the Israel-Hamas conflict and illegal border crossings among the factors putting Americans in danger of terrorist attacks.
“We are particularly concerned about a confluence of factors this year, including violent extremist responses to domestic sociopolitical developments—especially the 2024 election cycle—and international events that domestic and foreign violent extremists likely will use to justify or encourage attacks in the Homeland,” the report’s introduction read.
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to the House last April that “the threat from foreign terrorists” rose “to a whole nother level” as enemies took inspiration from Hamas’s war on Israel.
Last March, border agents caught an illegal migrant who said he belonged to the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah coming “to make a bomb.” This came months after Biden’s own agencies warned that Islamist groups might exploit the porous state of the U.S. border.
Peters questioned concerns about migrants on the terrorist watchlist after Republican senators mentioned the issue again with other border security problems.
“We’ve heard a lot of numbers being thrown around here, and I don’t have time to go through and … challenge those numbers,” Peters said before questioning Noem a second time. “Some of them, we don’t even know where they came from.”
Blumenthal said “We should not take our eye off the ball” regarding homegrown extremism even though “There’s a lot of focus on the border” and “We all want more border security.”
Noem is currently the governor of South Dakota.
Peters’ and Blumenthal’s offices did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour)
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