On Tuesday, the Biden administration said there were no plans to classify people in the US who make “violent antisemitic threats” as “domestic terrorists.”
In response to the question by a reporter during the White House daily briefing, Biden’s National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said during the White House press briefing, “I don't know that we're classifying people as domestic terrorists for that. I mean, that's really a question better left to law enforcement. I'm not aware that there's been such a characterization of that.”
Many were quick to point out that parents who showed up to school board meetings who were concerned about their children's education had previously been described as akin to “domestic terrorists” by the National School Boards Association in a letter that triggered the Biden administration to order the FBI to investigate.
Since the deadly terror attacks on Israel by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 that massacred over 1,400 Israeli civilians, antisemitism has spiked across the US and has been visible most prominently on college campuses as left-wing students have formed pro-Hamas rallies opposing the Jewish state.
Kirby’s comments come only a month after House Republicans slammed Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland over his 2021 directive for the FBI to use counterterrorism tools to investigate parents who attended school board meetings across the US to challenge critical race theory and gender ideology-related policies in public schools.
The NSBA complained to the Biden administration about parents who showed up at school board meetings to advocate for their childrens' education. In response, the DOJ issued a memo stating that these parents should be investigated by the FBI using the the tools available in the Patriot Act available to counteract “domestic terrorism.” It was later revealed that the letter was not organically generated by the NSBA, but actually requested by the DOJ so that the DOJ would have a reason to draft the memo.
During Monday’s briefing, Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also refused to label anti-Israel protestors “extremists.” At the Tuesday briefing, instead of answering a question about rising antisemitism, Jean Pierre pivoted and said, “The President knows that Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim have endured a disproportionate number certainly of hate-fueled attacks.
