In a very troubling article ( aren't they all? ) in the Sunday NY Times (front page, 1/31), it is reported that Donald Trump and top officials in his administration diverted the attention and resources of the FBI and Homeland Security from investigating far-right domestic terrorism, which had been identified as a growing threat to the nation, and directed those agencies to focus, instead, on antifa and the protests for racial justice. The consequences of that politically driven detour were made clear at the Capitol on January 6th.
While the article properly places blame upon Mr. Trump and former Attorney General William Barr, both of whom directed subordinates to beef up fruitless efforts to find left-wing conspiracies and to stand down on the threat of white nationalism, the report fails to pay necessary attention to the role of Republican legislators and right-wing media in promoting that misdirection. The myth that antifa was the true threat and that racial protests were a greater menace than white domestic terrorism was echoed by Republican senators and representatives and was amplified nightly by the "Murderers' Row" of commentators on Fox News, Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham. The persistent falsehoods spewed by those elements left our country unprepared to deal with the violence their malicious pronouncements incited.
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