National security rating #2: Confront violent extremism at home

Item #2 in our 10-point 2020 National Security Voter Guide focuses on how presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden confront violent extremism at home.

Before considering any foreign national security commitments or threats, an assessment of the candidates must include their policies to protect the American constitutional way of life, and American citizens personally, in the homeland. Our second point of evaluation is about how well Donald Trump and Joe Biden keep the people safe from violent extremism here at home.

The domestic national security apparatus – FBI, Department of Homeland Security, other federal agencies, and state and local investigative and police forces – has been poorly equipped to handle the organized mob-style violent extremism at home. It has excelled at fighting traditional terrorism of the white supremacist and Islamist/jihadist varieties, but have done so at the expense of understanding, collecting and analyzing intelligence on, and acting against mob-style violent extremism along the lines of Antifa/BLM. This is a system-wide problem.

Joe Biden: In his decades on the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees and as vice president, Joe Biden has shown almost no interest in combating revolutionary, mob-style violent extremism at home – with the exception of a few years during the 1970s when he was aligned with the Dixiecrats to suppress New Left urban terrorists, cop-killers, and rioters. He has been tough on crime and sentencing. In his eight years as vice president, he showed no interest in confronting the reincarnated New Left from the ‘70s and its Antifa/BLM descendants. As a senator and vice president, Biden has supported the appointments of federal judges who are weak on such lawlessness.

Biden was part of the Obama policy to support the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamists in the United States. In 2020, Biden actively considered radical Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-TX), a thirty-year veteran of the Cuban Communist Party’s Venceremos Brigades and regarded as a controlled Cuban government asset, to serve as his 2020 vice presidential running mate.

At the Democratic National Convention, the violent protests that were raging in American cities and the anarchist groups behnd them were not mentioned by any speaker, including Biden.  When Biden finally discussed the violent protests after the convention he blamed Trump, not Antifa or BLM. Biden has joined the BLM/Antifa demands to de-fund the police, though he has waffled on the issue. Biden has supported FBI abuses under Comey and calls Trump’s criticism anti-American. As of this writing, Biden has not explicitly denounced Antifa by name. He sat silently for 94 days of rioting before deploring the violence.

Donald Trump: President Trump denounced the Antifa rioters by name. Trump strongly supports funding the police. Trump has been critical of an FBI that has damaged its own effectiveness and the public trust through politicization and abuse of power. Trump reportedly is considering the designation of Antifa as a terrorist entity but has not yet acted. Trump has been naming federal judges and justices who are tough on anarchism, vandalism, destruction of public property, looting, and arson.

Confront violent extremism at home verdict – Trump: Strong. Biden: Weak.