WATCH: Padilla questions witnesses at Senate hearing on the increase in domestic terrorism in the United States

June 8, 2022 - WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, questioned witnesses at a hearing titled “Examining the ‘Metastasizing’ Domestic Terrorism Threat After the Buffalo Attack.” During the hearing, Padilla spoke about the alarming rise in domestic terrorism and the role that our country’s gun crisis plays in making this threat more deadly.

Padilla questioned Michael German, a Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and a former Special Agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, about how racist conspiracy theories are often hiding in plain sight. Padilla asked him how law enforcement officials can play a more strategic role in identifying threats of violence against Americans. He also questioned him about the role that social media plays in the planning and carrying out of shootings, particularly the one in Buffalo, New York.

Padilla also questioned Robert Pape, a Political Science Professor at the University of Chicago, about the ‘Great Replacement Theory’ and the dangers of extremist ideology becoming more mainstream as it’s perpetuated by right wing media.

Key Excerpts:

• PADILLA: …as we’re doing this, I think it’s not just appropriate, but necessary to consider easy access to guns in America is jointly enabling these violent extremists. In Buffalo, the perpetrator’s weapon of choice after the radicalization, the weapon of choice, was an AR-15. That enabled him to turn his hatred into carnage. […] I’ve said it before, we’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, this has got to stop. This violence, this carnage is unacceptable—our children deserve better.
• PADILLA: …America is a nation of immigrants. That’s our story since the birth of this nation. And I believe that the diversity of our country as a result is a source of incredible strength. In America, we believe that we’re all created equal and should enjoy equal rights. So it’s deeply disturbing to me to see right wing media figures, to your point, Professor Pape, as well as politicians, including the former president, prompting racism, hatred, and division in the United States of America—sometimes subtly, sometimes not subtle at all.
• PADILLA: So in your studies, just expand on how you found individuals who believe in and promote the Great Replacement Theory, how they may believe they’re more deserving of citizenship or that first class citizenship, than those of another race?
  
  PAPE: Yes. So Senator Durbin showed in the beginning of the hearing some very prominent examples of exactly what I’m referring to, Senator. What I’d like to do though, is tell you about the focus groups that we have conducted that I haven’t told the committee about yet. And I think you might find this even more interesting, because I’m sure you’re going to be able to find the clips in the media. The focus group, so we have not just been serving the population, we have been focus grouping people in that 18 million of, and what we have discovered is many of them are able to repeat almost word for word, the kind of dialogue that Senator Durbin showed in the beginning.

For a downloadable version of Padilla’s remarks, click here.

Full remarks, as delivered, are below:

PADILLA

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I just want to thank you for creating the form of this committee to scrutinize the racist rhetoric in online spaces that are fueling the rise of domestic terrorism in America in addition to the mainstream outlets that Professor Pape has repeatedly reminded us of.

If, as we’re doing this, I think it’s not just appropriate, but necessary to consider easy access to guns in America is jointly enabling these violent extremists. In Buffalo, the perpetrators weapon of choice after the radicalization, the weapon of choice, was an AR-15. That enabled him to turn his hatred into carnage. And just this past weekend, Mr. Chair, you know, just as well as I do, there were at least 10 more mass shootings—violent incidents that meet the definition of mass shootings—10. At least 15 people died as a result, at least 60 were injured, and that’s not to mention the countless others, friends and family members of the victims and others who are now terrorized, for fear that it could have been them or it might be them next time in those very communities, and across the country. I’ve said it before, we’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, this has got to stop. This violence, this carnage is unacceptable—our children deserve better.

Now turning to my questions. Over the years, we have seen a growing reliance on the internet, life on the internet, and most notably, but not exclusively, but most notably, social media to spread racist conspiracy theories and to radicalize and recruit domestic terrorists. First question is for Mr. German. In your written testimony, you share your belief that racist conspiracy theories are often hiding in plain sight, and that reporting the spread of these theories and relevant threats of violence to law enforcement could help prevent future attacks. However, you also note that the sad reality is that the FBI receives 1000s of tips concerning violence on social media each and every day. In light of this reality, what are your thoughts on how local, state, and federal law enforcement officials can play a more strategic role in identifying credible threats of violence against Americans?

GERMAN

Thank you for that question. I think part of the problem is that the FBI and Congress reduced the criminal predicates necessary to start investigation. So, by removing the need for evidence-based triage, right, that we’re actually saying there is evidence to suggest that a crime may occur, was the standard that I worked under, reasonable indication that criminal activity may be occurring. Removal of those through the changes to the attorney general guidelines and legislation like the Patriot Act, opened up the floodgates so that “See Something, Say Something” became the policy and that FBI had a policy of responding to every single allegation that came in over the transom. And what this does is just like pulling a fire alarm when there isn’t a fire, is illegal, because we know it dulls the response. This tends to dull the response. The agents responding tend to believe this is going to be a false alarm, just like all the others. I’m going to do the least I can do to close this one and move to the next one because I have more piling up in my inbox while I’m out cleaning this up. And I think that is the problem. And restoring those criminal predicates would help the FBI and state and local law enforcement triage these incidents better so they could focus where there was actual evidence of criminal activity.

PADILLA 

Thank you, I was gonna acknowledge that the New York Attorney General has announced that her office is launching an investigation into the social media companies whose platforms were used in planning and live streaming the shooting in Buffalo. I was gonna ask, what additional suggestions you have for disrupting the pathways to radicalization. You’ve talked about modifying the criteria to begin an investigation—is, anything else before I move on to my next topic?

GERMAN

I think one thing to keep in mind is that social media is a double-edged sword for violent people on the on the internet, right? Yes, it helps them spread their message, but it also leaves a permanent record that is evidence that can be used against them. And oftentimes what we see is these platforms are very leaky, and that data is out. And that data was helpful to civil litigants who brought a civil case against the Unite the Right rally organizers because they had access to that material.

Likewise, the FBI had access to that material, but you didn’t see them making the same efforts to prove conspiracy cases in the Unite the Right case, except in one exception. So, I think that’s the problem, is that they need to use what evidence there is and follow up when there is actually a violent crime. Most of the people who committed violence at the Unite the Right rally weren’t ever prosecuted for it. So that’s part of the problem. In Portland, it was mentioned before, Proud Boys and other far right militants were coming across state lines to commit violence in Portland for years. And the lack of law enforcement attention is what enabled them to have such strong networks that they could mobilize to, according to the government’s allegations, organize the attack on the Capitol. So, it takes actually looking at the evidence of that criminal activity, but too often that gets ignored.

PADILLA

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know my time is up, but I’d like to ask just another question. One more issue, if I may. Because you’ve heard me talk about this time and again since I joined the Senate last year, that America is a nation of immigrants. That’s our story since the birth of this nation. And I believe that the diversity of our country as a result is a source of incredible strength. In America, we believe that we’re all created equal and should enjoy equal rights. So it’s deeply disturbing to me to see right wing media figures, to your point, Professor Pape, as well as politicians, including the former president, prompting racism, hatred, and division in the United States of America—sometimes subtly, sometimes not subtle at all. So it’s important that we shine a light on to these frightening ideologies that fuel domestic terrorism, so we can stop the spread of violent hate. Professor Pape, in your written testimony, you state that some, and I’ll quote, “Some politicians and media figures tell whites that they are deliberately being replaced by minorities and destined to become second class citizens. And that minorities will have more rights than whites.” And just the references second class citizenship sort of implies that there’s a first-class citizenship. So I’m gonna focus from another word, “replaced,” actually. Because use of that word “replaced” is very purposeful.

PAPE

Yes.

PADILLA

And very powerful. So in your studies, just expand on how you found individuals who believe in and promote the Great Replacement Theory, how they may believe they’re more deserving of citizenship or that first class citizenship, than those of another race?

PAPE

Yes. So Senator Durbin showed in the beginning of the hearing some very prominent examples of exactly what I’m referring to, Senator. What I’d like to do though, is tell you about the focus groups that we have conducted that I haven’t told the committee about yet. And I think you might find this even more interesting, because I’m sure you’re going to be able to find the clips in the media. The focus group, so we have not just been serving the population, we have been focus grouping people in that 18 million of, and what we have discovered is many of them are able to repeat almost word for word, the kind of dialogue that Senator Durbin showed in the beginning.

And it’s about how the Democratic Party is deliberately replacing whites with non-whites, and it’s through immigration, through other policies. And it’s also about how they feel that they have a target on their back as being whites, and they feel like they are becoming second class citizens in their own country. So it’s not simply the media language that I’m reporting to you, sir, in those couple of sentences, what you don’t see is underneath that, the 80 focus groups that we have conducted, which is providing evidence after evidence of the power of that media. And I would just suggest that as a follow-on hearing, it would make a lot of sense to focus directly on the role of the Great Replacement in mainstream media, and to bring on the actual people, and with academic researchers, and we can have a real discussion of why is it those folks in the media don’t think they’re increasing violence? And let’s have a real national conversation?

PADILLA

And lastly, just had a curiosity. Can you give a couple of examples of what rights are we talking about? What rights do whites think that they’re going to be losing potentially, or that?

PAPE

Absolutely, sir. So let me just, I can’t because of confidentiality, I can’t tell you their exact names, but let me just give you somebody who’s 69 years old, a male in Connecticut who owns a million-and-a-half-dollar home, beautiful, complaining about how he is the son of an immigrant. He comes from immigrants. But what’s happening now as a result of the Great Replacement, is that his political rights are being taken away point by point by point. This is the belief in the steal, the steal that, the idea that the election was stolen. There are people who really believe that election was stolen. What that equates to when their mind is their political rights are being taken away. Then they move to their economic rights, where they’ll discuss affirmative action policies and so forth, that they see as mainly harming their children, sir. So it’s not so much a 69 year old man well off living in Connecticut is worried about getting a future job, but he will explain how his children and grandchildren are having their economic rights taken away. Those are the positions being pushed in these narratives that I’m explaining. So, these are rights which many of the immigrants, people came to this country to achieve, political equality, or economic equality.

PADILLA

Thank you, Professor. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Source: Senator Alex Padilla