FBI Director Says White Supremacy a "Persistent and Ubiquitous Threat" for the United States

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"The danger I think white supremacy, violent extremism or some other kind of extremism is obviously important," Wray said at a hearing in the House. "We believe that it is a persistent and pervasive threat, and we are tackling it both by our joint Terrorism Working Groups on the national terrorism side and by our program of counterterrorism. defense of civil rights on the civilian side, through the application of hate crimes. "

Wray also denounced hate crimes and Democrats asked him what the FBI was doing to fight hate crimes.

"We are determined not to tolerate hate-motivated violence in our communities, so we will aggressively investigate these cases," said Wray, adding that there had been an increase in the number of "reports on hate crimes". does not automatically mean more hate crimes. The FBI's efforts to encourage the public to report hate-motivated crimes could have benefits, he said.

These comments do not exactly match what Trump said about white nationalism. Trump, who named Wray in 2017, downplayed the danger of white nationalism and even praised some of the Nazi supporters who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia.

After the massacre of the New Zealand mosque last month, where a right-wing extremist killed 50 Muslim worshipers, Trump said he did not see white nationalism as a growing global threat.

"I think it's a small group of people who have very, very serious problems, I guess," Trump said.

In the United States, Muslim rights groups said that after the tragedy they would blame Trump for any increase in Islamophobic attacks. An FBI assessment released last year revealed a 17% increase in the number of hate crime incidents reported in 2017 compared to 2016.
Trump and his allies rejected accusations that he was gentle to white nationalism and that his rhetoric fueled a dangerous climate for minorities. After the attacks in New Zealand, the White House acting head of state, Mick Mulvaney, said: "The president is not a white supremacist".

Em Steck from CNN contributed to this report.

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