The president was accused of pushing “dangerous racial division”
Joe Biden speaks at Howard University’s commencement in Washington DC, May 13, 2023 © AP / Patrick Semansky
In a speech to black college graduates on Saturday, US President Joe Biden labeled ‘white supremacy’ the most dangerous terrorist threat to the US. The statement – which is contradicted by crime statistics – was condemned by conservative pundits.
“White supremacy… is the single most dangerous terrorist threat in our homeland,” Biden told graduates from Howard University, a historically black university (HBCU) in Washington DC.
“I’m not just saying this because I’m at a black HBCU. I say this wherever I go,” Biden continued. “Fearless progress toward justice often means 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.”
BIDEN at Howard University: "The most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland is white supremacy, and I'm not saying this because I'm at a Black HBCU…" pic.twitter.com/qPL3bkGsCx
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 13, 2023
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.”
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According to FBI crime statistics, the average Howard University graduate is 11 times more likely to be murdered by a member of their own race than a white perpetrator. While African-Americans commit the majority of all violent crime in the US, most crime – whether committed by white or black Americans – is intraracial.
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.”
