Homeland Security chief warns of radicalized loners aiming to disrupt election with violence

Homeland Security Secretary Alexander Mayorkas

From The Guardian

Alejandro Mayorkas says radicalized individuals could disrupt voting by targeting polling places and workers:

The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, has warned that one of the top threats facing the US in the lead-up to November’s presidential election are “lone offenders” aiming to disrupt voting and other public targets.

“In the aftermath of 9/11 the most prominent terrorism-related threat facing our nation was that of sophisticated foreign terrorist networks,” Mayorkas said in a keynote speech at a closed-door conference, hosted by the Soufan Center in New York.

He added: “But today another prominent and challenging terrorism-related threat facing the United States is the lone offenders.” [...]

“These are individuals who have been radicalized to violence based on ideologies of hate, anti-government sentiment, conspiracy theories or personal grievances,” he said, describing what are largely the ideologies of rightwing extremists. “In our modern, heightened terrorism threat environment, any locality, anywhere, can be a target at any time.”

Since I am on my phone, I won’t be writing commentary on this, but will link a previous piece where I also didn’t provide my own commentary: Expert on far-right extremism David Neiwert warns that FBI, media not alert to incipient violence.