WATCH: Adam Schiff’s key hypothetical question destroys GOP effort to politicize terrorism
The chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence asked a hypothetical question during Wednesday's hearing on domestic terrorism.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) used the question to counter what he described as "disturbing" attacks against the federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies' authority to investigate domestic terrorism.
"Let's say there was an explosion on the [Capitol] Mall that killed dozens of people and in the hours after the explosion it wasn't clear who planted the bomb or what their motivation should be," Schiff said. "Can you both describe before us what role DHS, INA would play, what role the bureau would play in trying to determine who was responsible for that and how it might inhibit your work if you were prohibited from doing that investigative or analysis work until a foreign nexus could be identified."
Timothy Langan, the assistant director of counterterrorism at the FBI, responded first to Schiff's question.
"So, unfortunately that scenario not necessarily exactly there but has been played out before. Initially, it is very difficult to determine the nature and motive of an attack that happened throughout the country. So initially, the response from the government usually local, law enforcement, the FBI, DHS, other government agencies would quickly try to work together to first determine the existence of the continuation of that threat that may have been from that initial action. Then, trying to determine the individuals involved, motives, and the planning that went into such."
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