The Department of Homeland Security is warning Americans to beware of attacks by “ideologically-motivated violent extremists” opposed to President Biden.
In a bulletin issued Wednesday, DHS emphasizes that it has no information indicating “a specific, credible plot.”
The warning instead cites a general “heightened threat environment” stretching across the country that DHS believes “will persist” for weeks or even longer, reports the Washington Post.
DHS issues such advisories periodically, but they are typically “generated by elevated concerns about attacks by foreign governments or radical groups, not domestic extremists,” the Post says.
The alert comes three weeks to the day after angry militant protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol after being egged on by then-President Donald Trump, and just one week after Biden’s inauguration.
“The DHS warns that terrorists may have been ‘emboldened’ by the … attack on the Capitol building to launch similar attacks aimed at elected officials and government facilities,” Forbes reports.
See the DHS Bulletin in this tweet:
“The wording of the single-page document suggests that national security officials see a connective thread between recent violence over the last year motivated by anti-government grievances, whether over Covid-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results or police use of force,” says the Associated Press.
“It also singles out racially motivated acts of violence such as the 2019 rampage targeting Hispanics in Texas, as well as the threat posed by extremists motivated by foreign terrorist organizations.”
The alert was issued by acting Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske; the Senate has not yet confirmed Biden’s nominee for the post, Alejandro Mayorkas.
