House Democrat pushes Biden to issue executive order identifying White Supremacy as ‘critical threat’

Calling gap in screening ‘inexcusable’, House Democrat Jackie Speier said situation ‘clearly needs presidential leadership’

California Democrat Jackie Speier has sent a letter to President Joe Biden imploring him to declare White Supremacy a national security threat. Ms Speier, the chair of the House Armed Services Military Personnel subcommittee, also urged federal agencies to monitor possible military recruits and those hoping to obtain government security clearance.

The letter was also addressed to Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

"In recent years, I have become increasingly alarmed about the connections between military service-members and violent extremist groups," Ms Speier wrote adding that she believed that the "current approach" was "insufficient".

Ms Speier wrote that extremist groups have targeted service-members for "decades", specifically "because of their training, which makes terrorist attacks more achievable and lethal". The letter states that social media platforms "were crucial for planning the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the US Capitol and the Congress of the United States", and criticised the background investigation process for the military and government security clearances for not including social media checks. This "despite collection and reporting of other intrusive, private data, such as financial and behavioural health information", the letter says.

Calling the gap in screening "inexcusable", Ms Speier said the situation "clearly needs presidential leadership".

"President Biden, I call on you to issue an Executive Order identifying white supremacy and violent extremism as a critical threat that must be considered as part of the security clearance adjudication process and directing all relevant agencies to update the background investigation process to incorporate a review of social media information to identify white-supremacist or violent-extremist ties," Ms Speier wrote.

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She called for applicants to national security positions to be asked to "disclose all social media platforms on which they participate and all social media handles used and to grant permission to share nonpublic social media information with investigators".

To make her case, Ms Speier cited several examples of service-members joining forces with White Supremacist and anti-government groups.

In June 2020, an Army soldier plotted with a satanic Neo-Nazi cult to cause “the deaths of as many of his fellow service-members as possible”, according to the indictment, The Washington Post wrote.

That same month, a sergeant in the Air Force who had expressed allegiance to the boogaloo movement, which seeks to overthrow the US government, was charged with murder and attempted murder after shooting a federal security officer to death, The New York Times reported at the time.

Also in June 2020, three men were arrested on terrorism-related charges after authorities said they were found to be conspiring to create violence during protests in Las Vegas. The men, who all had military experience, had connections to a right-wing extremist movement also aiming to overthrow the US government, the Associated Press reported.

The letter also cited the reports that numerous Capitol rioters had military experience.