CNN's Pamela Brown highlighted a moment from a Homeland Security Committee hearing where the panel's top Democrat laid into an FBI official for his inability to provide details about the group he identified as the nation's top violent domestic security threat.
FBI official Michael Glasheen told the committee the law enforcement agency agrees with President Donald Trump that the left-wing group posed the greatest national security threat to the U.S., but he was unable to substantiate that claim when Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) pressed him for details.
"I'll ask one question, sir: Ijust want you to tell us if yousaid antifa is the number onedomestic terrorist organizationoperating in the United States," Thompson said. "I just need to know where theyare. How many people? I don'twant a name, I don't wantanything like that. Just howmany people have you identifiedwith the FBI that antifa ismade of?"
Glasheen told the congressman the investigations remained active and described them as "very fluid," and Thompson pounced.
"You wouldn't come to thiscommittee and say something youcan't prove," Thompson said. "I know,you wouldn't do that. But youdid."
Brown was stunned by the exchange, which she summed up as "quite the moment there," and she invited former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe to comment.
"Youcan't come to the worldwidethreats hearing and claim thatsomething is the biggest threatin the United States, thebiggest security threat that weface, and then provide zerodetails or facts about it," McCabe said. "Now,of course, we can't expect theFBI to talk about specific casesor identify individuals underunder investigation. That'ssensitive information, but verytypically the director orthe representative should beable to say 'This is what wethink about them, here's how weknow about them, here's how bigwe think they are, here's theregions of the country we thinkthey're located in.'"
"Thefact is, as any follower of andstudent of antifa can tell you,those things are just thosefacts are just not there forantifa," he added. "Antifa is not has neverbeen a structured formalorganization with an identifiedleader or even an identifieddirective. They are a loosecollection of people who exhibitthe same sort ofanti-establishment viewsand, you know, violent activity among protests."
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