United States Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the country is facing a difficult situation when it comes to security threats. She said possible trouble could come from the border, acts inspired by foreign conflict, or domestic rhetoric.
In an interview that aired Sunday, Monaco spoke with NBC News’s Pierre Thomas on This Week. She addressed the challenges of the contemporary threat environment and said the rhetoric of people like former President Donald Trump did not help the situation.
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“I think we are in a very, very challenging threat environment. During 9/11, our focus was on sophisticated plots driven by foreign terrorist organizations with catastrophic effect,” Monaco said.
“Today, I think we’re in a unique moment, where what we’re most worried about are individuals or small groups who are often radicalized online and who are motivated by and influenced by a range of ideologies from foreign terrorism and foreign terrorist organizations to domestic grievances,” she continued. “And oftentimes, what we’re seeing in the most lethal form is from racially or ethnically motivated ideologies.”
Regarding various threat categories being elevated in current times, Monaco said contemporary conflicts can contribute to the situation.
“We have this range of ideologies that can motivate and inspire individuals to violence, and the current conflict is causing, I think, contributing to a heightened threat environment.”
“What we are seeing is foreign terrorist organizations taking advantage and calling upon their adherents to act, do something,” she said. “And then we’re seeing individuals and small groups that we worry will basically take twisted inspiration from the conflict overseas and from the very searing images that we’re seeing – that came out of the brutal, brutal terrorist attacks that occurred on [Oct. 7.]”
Monaco said since the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, there has been an uptick in threats of violence against Jewish and Arab and Muslim communities in the U.S.
“The FBI has received more than 1,800 reports of threats or other types of tips or leads that are somehow related to or have a nexus to the current conflict in Israel and Gaza.”
She said many of the tips are resolved without issue, but some become investigations.
“Today as we sit here, the FBI has opened more than 100 investigations coming out of those reports.”
Monaco also said the Department of Justice was working to address the situation at the U.S. border with Mexico.
The conversation then turned to the political environment in Washington D.C., and Monaco was asked about Republican claims that the DOJ is full of political operatives.
“Those claims bear no resemblance to the Justice Department that I know. The Justice Department that I know is filled with dedicated men and women,” she said. “They get up every day without regard to who’s in the White House or who’s in Congress — it really bothers me when I hear those claims, because it does a disservice to the men and women of the Justice Department. It contributes to the toxicity that you’re speaking about.”
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When asked if rhetoric like that used by Trump, including his “poisoning the blood” comments, was helpful in the situation, Monaco said it was not.
“Well, of course it’s not helpful,” she said. “I am getting reports about threats to public officials, threats to our prosecutors, threats to law enforcement agents who work in the Justice Department, threats to judges — in fact, just this week… we’ve had cases involving threats to kill FBI agents, a supreme court justice, and three presidential candidates – that’s just this week.”
