>> fbi director christopher wray testified before the senate judiciary committee regarding oversight of his agency. he was questioned by senate democrat dick durbin about the response to domestic terrorism and white supremacist violence. sen. durbin: mr. wray, welcome. i would like to ask you a question. do you know what group was responsible for more homicides from 2000-2016, more than any other domestic extremist group? dir. wray: not sure, but i think you're about to tell me. >> not a trick question. i raise the question because your testimony that was submitted to the committee talked a lot about home grown violent extremists.

in an and classified f.b.i.-d.h.s. joint intelligence bulletin in may, 2017, it found that white supremacist extremism poses persistent threat of lethal violence. it went on to say that white supremacists are responsible for more homicides from 2000 to 2016 than any other domestic extremist movement. seven members of the committee joined me in writing a letter to you and attorney general barr explaining our concern about whether the f.b.i. and department of justice were taking adequate measures to combat white supremacist violence and minimizing the domestic terrorism threat. the term white supremacist, white nationalist is not included in your statement to the committee when you talk about threats to america. there's a reference to racism, which i think probably was meant to include that, but nothing more specific. we live in a world where the neo-nazis and white supremacists are taking lives in many places.

white supremacists murdered 51 muslim worshipers in new zealand. in 2017, a white supremacist murdered six muslim worshipers in a mosque in québec, canada. a white supremacist committed the shootings at the sikh temple shooting in oak creek, wisconsin, the emmanuel african methodist episcopal church in charleston, south carolina, the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and the chabad of poway synagogue in poway, california. the reason i raise this is because there is concerned this is not being taken as seriously as it should be as one of the real threats in our country, and there is concern as well that the f.b.i. has changed its definition when it comes to race-related crimes. they have created a new category for what you call racially-motivated violent extremism.

it used to be white supremacist incidents. could you explain to me why there was this change, whether you consider this a serious threat, and what you are doing about it? i ask you this in the context of a national conversation that is taking place every single day and this presidency about the issue of race and incitements to emotion and violence by the people who are using race as a motivator. dir. wray: senator, let me first unpack your question a little bit. needless to say, we take domestic terrorism or hate crime regardless of ideology extremely seriously, i can assure you. and we are aggressively pursuing it using both counterterrorism resources and criminal investigative resources, and partnering closely with our state and local partners. in just the last little while we have had cases involving, for example, the coast guard lieutenant who was planning an attack on elected officials and

tv anchors here in this area -- sen. durbin: was that motivated by a white supremacist belief? dir. wray: i think it would be a version of that, certainly. our focus, when you asked about the categorization, our focus is on the violence. we, the f.b.i., don't investigate ideology, no matter how repugnant. we investigate violence. any extremist ideology when it turns to violence, we're all over it. in fact, you don't have to just take my word for it, just in the first three quarters of this year, we had more domestic terrorism arrests than the prior year, and it is about the same number of arrests that we have on the international terrorism side. sen. durbin: i ask you to clarify that. i don't know if we're talking about the same thing. when you talk about home grown violent extremists, i talk about domestic violent extremists, are we talking about the same thing? dir. wray: no.

so we use the term home grown violent extremism to refer to people already here in the united states who are inspired by different parts of the global jihadist movement to commit terrorist acts. >> ok. i get that. dir. wray: we use domestic terrorism to refer to a broader array of threats ranging from anarchist extremism to different kinds of racially-motivated violent extremism, two different kinds of environmental extremism. sen. durbin: so the point i am getting to, the reason i quoted the unclassified report, if it is violence that motivates the f.b.i. investigation, what we have here is a statement in this unclassified joint intelligence report that between the years of 2000-2016, the white supremacist responsible for more homicides than any other domestic extremism movement.

grown versus domestic. quantify either one of them for us? dir. wray: in terms of number of arrests, we have through the third quarter of this fiscal take, 100give or , which includes violent extremism, this year. we've also had just about the on the domestic terrorism side. majority ofhat a the domestic terrorism cases that we've investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence, but it includes other things as well. sen. durbin: i think this is significant. i do not to diminish your work

when it comes to homegrown to domestic terrorism at all. i understand it is a serious threat. 9/11 is proof positive of that fact. what what you just said is significant. if the number of people arrested this calendar year when it comes to this extremist conduct is about equal between those who are inspired by foreign actors, isis, al qaeda, whatever it might be, and those inspired by white supremacy or at least some version of race -- that is the way i heard you say it. please clarify. dir. wray: let me clarify. what i just gave you were the number of arrests. the number of arrests. that's not necessarily the same thing as number of investigations. that's an important distinction. sen. durbin: assuming the integrity of your department, which i will come of the fact that they would make an arrest, it is with the belief that a crime has been committed. the point i am getting to, we are in a tense moment in american history on the issue of race. we're having a national conversation that we haven't had in a long time about racism and the reaction, what is acceptable and what is not.

and what i am asking you, from the f.b.i. point of view, and what you've told me, is we ought to take care, as seriously as we take foreign-inspired terrorism, there is a domestic terrorism underway in the name of race that is as threatening in some respects as foreign terrorism. that is the way i hear it. dir. wray: yeah, i don't know that -- i think the greatest terrorist threat to the homeland is the homegrown violent extremist. i will say -- sen. durbin: foreign inspired? dir. wray: which is the jihadist-inspired violence. that does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that we don't take domestic terrorism, including hate crime committed on behalf of some kind of white supremacist ideology , extremely seriously. we have had a number of very significant arrests. , mentioned the coast guard one we had militia members in but cleveland stockpiling

explosives to build pipe bombs, we had cesar sayoc, involving the package ieds. we had the "rise above" movement , where we arrested eight different people on federal rioting charges. one of them fled to el salvador and we got him back. we had the tree of life synagogue shooting case, which you mentioned, and the shooting outside of san diego, the attack on the synagogue there. we got a 29-count conviction and life sentence related to the charlottesville matter. so make no mistake, our local -- no mistake, the fbi, working with our state and local law enforcement partners are all , over this. sen. durbin: thank you very much. announcer: next, a debate on gun rights and a constitutional right to bear arms. duke university professor and author joseph