In a graduation speech on Saturday, US President Joe Biden labelled ‘white supremacy’ the most dangerous terrorist threat to the US. The statement was condemned by conservative pundits and cheered by the crowd.

“The most dangerous threat to our homeland is white supremacy,” Biden told graduates from Howard University, a historically black university (HBCU) in Washington DC.

“I’m not just saying this because I’m at an HBCU. I say this wherever I go,” Biden continued. “Fearless progress toward justice often meets ferocious pushback from the oldest and most sinister of forces. That’s because hate never goes away… it only hides under the rocks.”

Throughout his time in office, Biden has often talked up the threat of white supremacy, claiming that belief in the superiority of the white race motivated former President Donald Trump’s supporters to riot at the US Capitol in January 2021. The US president also declared last year that black people live in fear of being “gunned down by weapons of war deployed in a racist cause.”

In mid-2021, the Biden administration published the US government’s first ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism, which named “racially motivated violent extremists” and anti-government extremists as “the two most lethal elements of today’s domestic terrorism threat.”

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, “FBI domestic terrorism investigations has more than doubled since 2020.” In 2021, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas told senators that the greatest domestic threat facing the United States came from what they both called “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.”

Biden’s statement was condemned by conservative pundits, who accused the president of using divisive rhetoric to solicit votes. “The Democratic Party spent most of the 19th Century and much of the 20th using overt racism to win elections,” libertarian activist Jon Miltimore tweeted, adding that “They are doing it again in the 21st century. The racism just looks a lot different than the 19th century version.” Journalist Julie Kelly called Biden a “pathological liar” and accused him of fueling “dangerous racial division.” 

Last week, a gunman entered a mall in Texas and murdered eight people, mostly of Indian and Korean descent. One six-year-old was left the only surviving member of his family. Social media accounts that appear to belong to the shooter showcase neo-Nazi and white supremacist views. Officials say the shooter was wearing a patch with the acronym "RWDS" — which stands for "Right Wing Death Squad." 

Data released by the Anti-Defamation League in February 2023 saw that over 80% of murders occurring during mass shootings in 2022 were committed by white supremacists. The US has averaged about two mass shootings per day over the last three years, breaking records from previous years. 

^{Source RT}