Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy grilled former Pentagon spokesman John Kirby during a regular briefing, asking whether President Joe Biden’s administration was prepared to label anti-Semitic activists as “domestic terrorists.”
“The people in this country making violent, anti-Semitic threats, are they domestic terrorists?” Doocy asked.
Kirby, who is currently serving as strategic communications director for the National Security Council, suggested that designation should be left up to law enforcement: “I don’t know that we’re classifying people as domestic terrorists for that. I mean, I — that’s really a question better left to law enforcement.”
WATCH:
Doocy: "Has the WH considered the possibility that a terrorist could be in the country rn after crossing the southern border?"
Kirby: "Peter, we are always concerned about the potential presence on U.S. soil of terrorists, coming from overseas…We're always worried". pic.twitter.com/FpBehZLMR3
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 31, 2023
Doocy continued to press, asking Kirby whether the porous state of the southern border had raised concerns that a terrorist might enter the country that way — or could already have crossed the border.
“Peter, we are always concerned about the potential presence on U.S. soil of terrorists, coming from overseas. … We’re always worried,” Kirby replied.
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“But there was this bulletin last week — the CBP in San Diego, said militants associated with the Israel-Hamas war may be potentially encountered at the southwestern border,” Doocy pointed out. “Is there any heartburn around here? 600,000 known got-aways just in the last fiscal year. Is there any heartburn about leaving the border in such a condition that one of those 600,000 could be a terrorist?”
WATCH:
Doocy: "[I]s it possible somebody who wants to commit a terrorist attack…crossed the southern border into the United States already?"
Kirby: "I couldn't possibly answer that question, Peter…[W]e have remained vigilant to that potential threat." pic.twitter.com/DyANgfxzFH
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 31, 2023
“We are constantly monitoring as best we can all ports of entry … for the potential arrival of anybody who might wish us harm. And one of the things that the president asked for in this supplemental was additional funding for border security, for, like, 1,500 more border patrol agents and better technology,” Kirby said. “If the general gist of your question [is] are we taking the potential threat seriously, of course we are.”
In addition to the added concern that people involved in the Israel-Hamas war could potentially cross the southern border undetected, a number of individuals who are on the terror watch list have already done so.
