Yet another indication that House Democrats will be tending to sorely neglected areas of oversight, now that they’re in charge: The House Judiciary Committee this morning is opening hearings on hate crimes and the rise of white nationalism, a subject that deserves to be a front-line concern of every American politician.
Best of all, Chairman Jerrold Nadler isn’t just going to be investigating the rise of white nationalist extremism and its accompanying record levels of hate crimes and hate-group organization. He’s also going to be examining the role that Donald Trump has played in encouraging and enabling them—as well he should.
However, the opening hearings today present a big caveat: It’s not entirely clear that the committee members are going to be hearing from a lot of the people they need to be. Worse, some of the scheduled witnesses are of dubious value.
Why, for example, is Candace Owens of Turning Point USA—someone named by the Christchurch terrorist as an inspiration, speaking for an organization with multiple connections to white nationalism—among those testifying? What exactly does she bring to this table, besides disruption?
Neither is it clear what Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization for America, will be offering, since his organization in recent years has not only shown no interest in monitoring white nationalism and hate crimes, but has simultaneously been openly associating with anti-Muslim hate groups and coddling the alt-right.
On the other hand, there will be some excellent witnesses: Eileen Hershenov of the Anti-Defamation League will be among the main speakers, as will Eva Patterson of the Equal Justice Society and Kristen Clarke of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, both of whom do excellent and impressive work. And it will be interesting to hear what the public policy directors of Facebook and Google have to say as well.
Naturally, there will be more hearings and more opportunities for testimony to be heard. When that happens, let’s hope the committee can avoid the clown acts like Owens—whose shtick is likely to overshadow the serious content the panel will hear today—and have a fuller slate of experts who are knowledgeable on this subject, particularly those who have been tracking the rise of white nationalism from the start.
These should include Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Brian Levin of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, renowned expert J.J. MacNab, retired analyst Chip Berlet, as well as a number of other experts whose voices will be important for Congress to hear.
Levin told Daily Kos he was elated that the committee was tackling the problem. “The coalescence of white nationalism and other far-right extremism into a broad mainstreamed sociopolitical movement in North America has dramatically shifted the domestic terror threat in the U.S. at a time when federal authorities have yet to adequately address this pivot, making these hearings not only necessary, but long overdue,” he said.
The CSUSB center’s latest study, he noted, “indicates that both homicides motivated by far right extremism increased last year, as well as hate crimes overall in America’s largest cities, which hit a decade high.”
The White House’s self-evident disinterest in the problem of hate crimes and far-right extremism, however, is not a view that has spread to other departments. FBI Director Christopher Wray testified last week at a House subcommittee hearing that white nationalist violence is “significant” and a “persistent, pervasive threat.”
You can watch the hearing live here.
