Speaking to the Daily Beast, two former top Homeland Security officials say there was an "unwritten policy" not to say words like “domestic terrorism” and “white supremacy” around President Trump, for fear that he would interpret the topics as being critical of him.
Both Elizabeth Neumann, previously assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security for counterterrorism and threat prevention, and Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at DHS, tell the Beast that they were specifically told not to utter the phrases.
“Following the El Paso mass-shooting last year, the White House was looking to find a way to show that they were handling the situation,” Neumann said. “I was advised by senior officials in the White House at the time that I should couch this in terms of countering violence, rather than countering domestic terrorism or white supremacy, when discussing it at the White House or in front of the president…The subtext was clear, that by using those words, we would be distracting the president from the core issue.”
Read the full report over at The Daily Beast.