Confirming with statistics what too many Americans have seen with their own eyes, the FBI Monday reported that in 2019, hate-motivated crimes rose to their highest level in more than a decade, and hate-motivated homicides hit an all-time high.
That rising tide should trigger a series of swift steps by Joe Biden when he assumes the presidency.
Step one: Reverse the disastrous early Donald Trump decision to reorient the federal government’s Countering Violent Extremism program, designed to combat all lethally hateful ideologies, to focus solely on radical Islamist extremism.
Step two: Release all the facts. Trump’s own FBI has held back a report identifying white supremacist terror as the nation’s top threat.
Step three: Educate and enlist families and community leaders across America to be on the alert for signs of radicalization. Just as jihadi terror recruitment can be interrupted, so can racist terror indoctrination.
Step four: Change the tone in Washington, D.C. Trump plays footsie with those who peddle a vile conspiracy theory that calls Democrats part of a Satanist cabal. He dances around clear condemnations of groups with virulent ideologies, giving them succor and strength.
Biden must counter lame punch-pulling and pernicious lies with clarity and truth.
— New York Daily News