WASHINGTON, USA — FBI Director Chris Wray told lawmakers Thursday that antifa is an ideology, not an organization, delivering testimony that puts him at odds with President Donald Trump, who has said he would designate it a terror group.
Hours
after the hearing, Trump took to Twitter to chastise his FBI director for his
statements on antifa and on Russian election interference, two themes that
dominated a congressional hearing on threats to the American homeland.
Referring
to antifa, the president wrote: “And I look at them as a bunch of well funded
ANARCHISTS & THUGS who are protected because the Comey/Mueller inspired FBI
is simply unable, or unwilling, to find their funding source, and allows them
to get away with “murder”. LAW & ORDER!”
The
Twitter barbs thrust Wray again into a spotlight that he has spent three years
trying to avoid after his predecessor, James Comey, became entangled in
politics before being ultimately fired. Though Wray said as recently as
Thursday that the FBI made unacceptable mistakes during its investigation into
ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, Trump nonetheless has
intermittently lashed out at Wray over the pace of fixing those problems and
continues to regard his intelligence community with suspicion because of the
Russia probe.
Wray did
not dispute in his testimony Thursday that antifa activists were a serious
concern, saying that antifa was a “real thing” and that the FBI had undertaken
“any number of properly predicated investigations into what we would describe
as violent anarchist extremists,” including into individuals who identify with
antifa.
But, he
said, “It’s not a group or an organization. It’s a movement or an ideology.”
That
characterization contradicts the depiction from Trump, who in June singled out
antifa — short for “anti-fascists” and an umbrella term for far-left-leaning
militant groups — as responsible for the violence that followed George Floyd’s
death. Trump tweeted that the U.S. would be designating antifa as a terrorist
organization, even though such designations are historically reserved for
foreign groups and antifa lacks the hierarchical structure of formal
organizations.
The
hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee — established after the
Sept. 11 attacks to confront the threat of international terrorism — focused
almost entirely on domestic matters, including violence by white supremacists
as well as anti-government extremists. The topics underscored the shift of
attention by law enforcement at a time of intense divisions and polarization
inside the country.
But one
area where foreign threats were addressed was in the presidential election and
Russia’s attempts to interfere in the campaign.
Wray
sought to make clear the scope of the threats the country faces while resisting
lawmakers’ attempts to steer him into politically charged statements. When
asked whether extremists on the left or the right posed the bigger threat, he
pivoted instead to an answer about how solo actors, or so-called “lone wolves,”
with easy access to weapons were a primary concern.
“We don’t
really think of threats in terms of left, right, at the FBI. We’re focused on
the violence, not the ideology,” he said later.
The FBI
director said racially motivated violent extremists, such as white
supremacists, have been responsible for the most lethal attacks in the U.S. in
recent years. But this year the most lethal violence has come from
anti-government activists, such as anarchists and militia-types, Wray said.
Wray
also affirmed the intelligence community’s assessment of Russian interference
in the November election, which he said was taking the form of foreign
influence campaigns aimed at sowing discord and swaying public opinion as well
as efforts to denigrate Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
He said
that the U.S. had not yet seen targeting of election infrastructure like in
2016, but efforts to sow doubt about the election’s integrity are a serious
concern, he said.
“What
concerns me the most is the steady drumbeat of misinformation and sort of
amplification of smaller cyber intrusions,” Wray said. “I worry that they will
contribute over time to a lack of confidence of American voters and citizens in
the validity of their vote.”
“I think
that would be a perception,” Wray added, “not a reality. I think Americans can
and should have confidence in our election system and certainly in our
democracy. But I worry that people will take on a feeling of futility because
of all of the noise and confusion that’s generated.”
Trump
has resisted the idea of Russian interference aimed at benefiting his campaign
and has been eager, along with other administration officials, to talk about
intelligence officials’ assessment that China prefers that Trump lose to Biden.
He
responded on that front Thursday evening, tweeting: “But Chris, you don’t see
any activity from China, even though it is a FAR greater threat than Russia,
Russia, Russia. They will both, plus others, be able to interfere in our 2020
Election with our totally vulnerable Unsolicited (Counterfeit?) Ballot Scam.
Check it out!”
Though
intelligence officials said in a statement last month that China prefers that
Trump lose, they appeared to stop short of accusing Beijing of directly
interfering in the election in hopes of swaying the outcome.
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