The House will hold hearings that will include the topic of domestic terrorism in the wake of the Charlottesville clashes involving neo-Nazis, Homeland Security Chairman Michael T. McCaul announced Wednesday.
FBI, Department of Homeland Security and National Counterterrorism Center officials have been invited to the hearing, which will happen Sept. 12 — just after Congress returns from its summer vacation.
“Racial intolerance deserves no place in America, and it is imperative that we find ways to rid our nation of the scourge of white supremacism,” Mr. McCaul said.
A rally by neo-Nazis, white nationalists and “alt-right” adherents sparked clashes Saturday with counterprotesters. In the wake of the clashes, a car plowed into a group of counterprotesters, leaving one woman dead and 19 others injured. The man police have charged with homicide was seen marching with the neo-Nazis earlier.
The federal Justice Department has opened an investigation, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the car attack meets the definition of domestic terrorism.
Democrats had pressed Mr. McCaul earlier this week for domestic terrorism hearings, saying they didn’t trust President Trump to act, so pressure from Congress would be needed.
But they said the hearing Mr. McCaul has scheduled is “inadequate.”
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi, ranking Democrat on the committee, said the hearing was already scheduled even before the weekend’s events in Charlottesville and will cover all terrorist threats worldwide.
He said the committee should call a hearing focusing specifically on “threats from white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.”
Mr. McCaul said in his letter about the hearing that he urged both sides to ask probing questions of the witnesses about domestic terrorism.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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