overseas terrorist groups like al qaeda. part of what drove the group of us to write this or produce this statement yesterday was this sense that we looked to the fbi to solve this problem for us. the fbi is the preeminent law enforcement organization in the world. and yet, as chris wray said, if they don t get involved until it gets to the point where there s violence involved. and obviously, there s much that can be done left of that, before we get to that point when a gun has been fired or a bomb has been exploded. and that s what we re doing on the international terrorism side, but not on the domestic terrorism side. mr. getzer, mr. ali, on that point, to hear director wray say, we re not interested in looking at ideology, we re interested only when it turns to violence, what we are seeing here is not necessarily look particularly at the el paso shooter, not somebody who was a member of a group who had a patch and a vest that said he was part of something. not somebody who was
words, what you might call white supremacist violence. after the violence of this past week and this weekend the question is fully open as to whether the federal government right now is doing all that could be done to prevent these shootings, particularly shootings fueled by right-wing terrorist ideology. six former senior directors for counterterrorism at the national security council, directors that served under both democrats and republicans as president, they have now issued a statement calling for urgent reform in terms of the way the nation handles this kind of threat. these six counterterrorism directors are calling for, quote, a significant infusion of resources to support federal, state, and local programs aimed at preventing extremism and targeted violence of any kind, motivated by any ideology or directed at any american community. quote, we call on our government to make addressing this form of terrorism as high a priority as countering international terrorism has become si
every new mass shooting. it s only in america where the combination of a young man and a loaded gun have led to so many tragedies, so many dead. just another day in the united states of america. reporter: when there s an attack by an islamic extremist, we have no problem calling that terrorism. the american war on terror has identified a very specific enemy. in this case, the shooter in el paso was on a different kind of terrorist mission. this was homegrown domestic terrorism. the targeted murder of immigrants and latinos, to try to spread the ideology and the aims of white nationalism. this is disgusting, intolerable. it is not texan. reporter: white nationalism is an american terrorist movement as old as the klan, as old as slavery, as old as the
if either gunman had adhered to the ideology of radical islam, the resources of the american government and its international allies would mobilize without delay. no american would settle for thoughts and prayers as a counterterrorism strategy. in recalling the words of president george w. bush in the wake of 9/11, we must be a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution. nicole, you ve already mentioned this. your former boss has been invoked. of all of us, you were the only one who was communications director on 9/11. listen. to see that page, that new york times editorial page invoke and that page was really tough on the george w. bush administration, particularly some of the programs that i ve already mentioned, metadata, specifically. but the point is well taken. the point is actually more powerful by invoking george w. bush and the approach. because the attack of 9/11 was
spreading white nationalism through social media, through extremist media, up through the ragged edges of american politics, this is a challenge of a different order. today, if you look at what s going on in the united states, you have an ideology, they are motivated, they have capability. they know what to do and they have access to weapons. and they are willing to commit violence against other americans to advance their cause. i think that s the significant change we ve seen over the last ten years. brian and nicole, that warning there from former fbi agent clint watts there at the end about the rise of american ideology violence, saying they are motivated, they have the capability. obviously, we have all covered mass shootings, we have all covered this incredible phenomenon that we have in our lifetimes as americans of these mass shootings. there does seem to be something that may even be politically different when it comes to mass shootings that are inflected by a domestic terr