Following the arrest of a white nationalist Coast Guard officer with a planned kill list of journalists and politicians, House Democrats are very interested in what the military is doing to screen and track white supremacists in their ranks. Reps. Elijah Cummings, Anthony Brown, Jamie Raskin, and Jackie Speier wrote to the Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security, noting that the cases of Christopher Hasson and some other members of the military recently arrested for white nationalism are of “significant concern, particularly given their combat and weapons training.”
In addition to the Hasson case, some members of the military participated in white supremacist rallies in 2017, with at least two arrested.
”Our hope is that these incidents are isolated events and are not indicative of a larger, systemic issue within the United States Armed Services,” the Democrats wrote. But they’re not ready to take it for granted. “Beyond the extremes of domestic terrorism, we are additionally concerned with low level racism and other identity-based harassment that disrupts unit cohesion, impacts readiness, and degrades the ability of our servicemembers to protect our nation. Servicemembers who experience or witness racist or hateful behavior must be able to report such behavior without fear of repercussions.”
”The vast majority of our service members continue to serve honorably,” the lawmakers wrote. The military still needs to have a system in place for screening out or tracking those who aren’t.