Is a 'domestic terrorist' anyone who opposes the Biden regime?

July 16, 2024 18 Reactions

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump over the weekend brings into sharp relief the rhetoric of a White House intent on painting its political opponents as an existential threat to American democracy.

For reference, consider that one of President Joe Biden’s first acts in office in 2021 was directing his national security team to conduct a review of domestic terrorism in the US, the result of which was a 32-page “National Strategy on Countering Domestic Terrorism”.

According to that report’s fact sheet, the two most “lethal elements” of American domestic terrorism were white supremacists and anti-government extremists.

While I don’t have access to the same information as Biden’s national security team, I do have my doubts about the conclusions they drew. Just months earlier, Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters had set fire to over a hundred American cities, inflicting US$2 billion in property damage, and causing the loss of dozens of lives.

Biden’s national strategy document was completely silent on those attacks.

The only conclusion I drew from that rather bizarre set of events was that protests advancing the political agenda of the Biden regime were to be viewed as Constitutionally-protected speech, whereas people and protests opposing the agenda of the current White House were on par with domestic terrorism.

Cynical though my conclusion was, it has held up quite well these last four years, with another incident reported just last week.

Before we get to that, a summary of events thus far.

Blatant bias

Here at Mercator, I have documented the Biden White House’s collusion with the National School Board Association to label parent protests against gender ideology in schools as “equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism”.

I have reported on Biden’s Department of Homeland Security suggesting that US citizens who reject mask and vaccine mandates as potential “domestic violent extremists”.

Mercator Editor Michael Cook has recounted how Biden’s FBI, under Attorney-General Merrick Garland, targeted Catholic pro-lifer and father of seven Mark Houck, surrounding his house with 25 agents at the crack of dawn, in a case that was ultimately dismissed for lack of evidence.

Indeed, I have also detailed the long list of other pro-life and anti-trans-the-kids activists persecuted by the Biden regime.

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Now for the latest development.

Two national pro-life organisations have been labelled terrorist threats during a training seminar at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, according to photographic evidence presented by citizen journalist Sam Shoemate.

The slides, shown during an anti-terrorism brief for the Directorate of Emergency Services, a division of the US Army tasked with base security at Fort Liberty, listed the National Right to Life and Operation Rescue as “terrorist groups”.

(For reference, Fort Liberty is one of the largest military bases in the world, and home to approximately 10 percent of all US Army forces).

Character assassination

Among the groups’ allegedly dangerous activities are demonstrations, picketing, sidewalk and crisis centre counselling, and opposition to Roe v. Wade—the latter of which, incidentally, suggests that domestic terrorists have infiltrated and now comprise two-thirds of the US Supreme Court.

National Right to Life and Operation Rescue have both condemned the characterisation, and Fort Liberty leadership posted on Facebook retracting the claims, while stopping short of issuing an apology.

“After conducting a commander’s inquiry, we determined that the slides presented on social media were not vetted by the appropriate approval authorities, and do not reflect the views of the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Liberty, the US Army or the Department of Defense,” the statement read.

“The slides were developed by a local garrison employee to train Soldiers manning access control points at Fort Liberty,” it added.

“These slides will no longer be used, and all future training products will be reviewed to ensure they align with the current DoD anti-terrorism guidance.”

It’s curious how these innocent mistakes only tend to occur in one direction — with regime voices painting conservatives as the existential threat.

Though small-scale and localised, this mishap by Biden’s Department of Defense is only the latest in a very predictable string of events targeting pro-lifers and other conservative-minded individuals.

With a recent attempt on the life of the presidential frontrunner, also a conservative, perhaps the Biden White House needs to reconsider its rhetoric.

Telling Americans that their conservative counterparts represent the greatest domestic terror threat in the nation and could spell the end of democracy has consequences.

Perhaps after Saturday’s assassination attempt, we will see the temperature lowered and more sober dialogue take place.

God knows, America needs it.

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Kurt Mahlburg is a husband, father, freelance writer, and a familiar Australian voice on culture and the Christian faith. He is the Senior Editor at Australia’s largest Christian news site, The Daily Declaration, and a Contributing Editor at Mercator. His writings can also be found at Intellectual Takeout, The American Spectator and the Spectator Australia. He has authored or co-authored five books, including his breakout title Cross and Culture: Can Jesus Save the West?

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

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mrscracker commented 2024-07-22 23:35:07 +1000

I guess one needs a thicker skin to write articles that are published here with comments allowed.
Thank you Mr. Kurt for all you do & may God bless you.
Frank den Hartog commented 2024-07-22 11:59:24 +1000

David Page is correct. It should have been “administration”. Another mistake from Mr Mahlburg, adding to the long list below. I strongly recommend Mercatornet to redact Mr Mahlburg’s articles more strictly in the future. Not because of the topics but because of the quality. I’m sure it’s possible to write much better contributions on the same topics, with a Christian values angle but without doing the cause more harm than good. And as redacting comes with a price tag, I’ll encourage everybody to increase the donations to Mercatornet.
David Page commented 2024-07-20 08:30:32 +1000

If the Biden presidency is a “regime” then why is it that he is (probably) being replaced? Just exactly how does that work?
Frank den Hartog commented 2024-07-19 17:50:55 +1000

I thank Mr Mahlburg @https://www.mercatornet.com/kurtmahlburg for his reply to my comment. Unfortunately, it hasn’t made things better. It is true that the document did not explicitly mention particular attacks from the particular groups BLM and Antifa and did not explicitly name those groups. But neither did it explicitly mention many other particular attacks and groups. It only provided a few examples. And then, further on, only discussed terror (from the right AND the left) in more generic terms. In that sense, it clearly mentioned the attack from BLM and Antifa, though implicitly. Look, the point I am trying to make is this: the essence of Mr Mahlburg’s “Is a ‘domestic terrorist’ anyone who opposes the Biden regime?” article is correct. This government’s anti-terror strategy document is biased indeed. Most examples provided were right-wing, which is poor. And we are all wondering why the government’s advisors apparently deem right-wing terrorism more dangerous than their left-wing cousin. But Mr Mahlburg’s tone, superficiality, and mistakes in presenting the issue does the cause more harm than good. I strongly advise Mr Mahlburg to spend more time on researching his topics, rereading his writings, and improving them iteratively, until they meet (what once were?) the standards of Mercatornet.
Michael Cook followed this page 2024-07-19 15:01:23 +1000
Anon Emouse commented 2024-07-19 05:26:14 +1000

“Among the groups’ allegedly dangerous activities are demonstrations, picketing, sidewalk and crisis centre counselling, and opposition to Roe v. Wade—the latter of which, incidentally, suggests that domestic terrorists have infiltrated and now comprise two-thirds of the US Supreme Court.”

This is in bad faith, Kurt and extraordinarily disingenuous. Your blithe use of “domestic terrorist” there belies that actual terrorism anti abortion activists have committed. This is by no means exhaustive, however:

-Paul Hill, an anti-abortion activist, shot and killed a doctor (John Britton) who provided abortions in 1993.

-In 2001, in your country of Australia, Peter James knight sought to burn nurses in the clinic.

-David Gunn was killed by an anti-abortion activist in 1993.

-John Salvi killed two receptionists at an abortion clinic in 1994.

-Robert Dear killed three at an abortion clinic in 2015.

-The American Coalition of Life Activists even went so far as to put up “Physician Wanted” posters for physicians who performed abortions. (What was that you said about the left calling for violence? What would you call putting up literal wanted posters for doctors who performed a procedure you didn’t like?)
David Page commented 2024-07-18 09:21:20 +1000

This site has turned its back on democracy. I have watched the drift for 15 years.
Anon Emouse commented 2024-07-17 01:05:24 +1000

“Trump did not weaponize the DOJ”

He’s threatening to.

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/trump-has-threatened-dozens-of-times-to-use-the-government-to-target-political-enemies/

Also, he wasn’t exactly squeaky clean with his use of the DOJ: https://web.archive.org/web/20230711154935/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/10/all-ways-trump-not-his-foes-sought-weaponize-government/

I look forward to your full throated rebuke of Trump’s intentions with the DOJ, Kurt.
Anon Emouse commented 2024-07-17 00:53:39 +1000

Kurt,

“Trump hasn’t incited violence”

That’s a lie.

Trump giving police tacit permission to rough up prisoners: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-police-nice-suspects/story?id=48914504

Trump sharing imagery of Biden being hogtied:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-inciting-political-violence-sharing-biden-hog-tied/story?id=108684127

Referring to undocumented migrants as animals
https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-calls-undocumented-immigrants-animals-liable-to-violence/

Trump calling to “liberate” Michigan and Virginia at the height of the pandemic:
https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1251169987110330372?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1251169987110330372%7Ctwgr%5E95e805c7cc4045c17c03a25c8459e53853730329%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2FPolitics%2Fback-trump-comments-perceived-encouraging-violence%2Fstory%3Fid%3D48415766

I could go on but I think you get my point. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Kurt Mahlburg commented 2024-07-17 00:37:03 +1000

@Frank I had not intended to continue replying here but your accusation is serious enough to warrant it. I wrote “Just months earlier, Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters had set fire to over a hundred American cities, inflicting US$2 billion in property damage, and causing the loss of dozens of lives. Biden’s national strategy document was completely silent on those attacks.” The document was silent on those attacks. It mentioned neither Antifa or BLM. The examples you provided do not constitute mentions of the summer riots.
Frank den Hartog commented 2024-07-16 23:16:37 +1000

I actually read the National Strategy on Countering Domestic Terrorism report. It says that “other domestic terrorists may be motivated to violence by single–issue ideologies related to abortion–, animal rights–, environmental–, …–violent extremism” and “anarchist violent extremists, who violently oppose all forms of capitalism”. However, Kurt Mahlburg claims that the document “was completely silent on those attacks”. That’s simply incorrect. So why should I now believe anything else he writes? I don’t have the time to factcheck every claim he makes.
Angela Shanahan commented 2024-07-16 22:44:51 +1000

It seems to me as an Australian outsider looking at America, that the violence which resulted in Trump being shot was neither a left nor right problem, neither Republican or Democrat. In fact I don’t think such an occurrence is strictly political. America is a violent place. The culture approves of aggressive , even violent reaction to anything, and the availability of guns makes this all the worse. I am more horrified by the number of young people shooting other young people in their schoolrooms than an attempted murder of a politician of which there have been many in America’s past and many of them successful.
Kurt Mahlburg commented 2024-07-16 21:58:27 +1000

@Peter, sorry to disappoint, but me noticing Democrats’ persecution of their political foes doesn’t make me a Republican, it makes me observant. Trump has said offensive things but he has not incited violence, not did he weaponise the DOJ as the current admin has.

@Anon, in principle, the left doesn’t have a monopoly on calls for violence, though in practice, they are responsible for the lion’s share of such rhetoric over the last decade or so. See: https://x.com/CaldronPool/status/1812260351003795821 and https://www.thewrap.com/hollywood-stars-donald-trump-violent-death-kathy-griffin-snoop-dogg/.

Having said that, the Kevin Roberts quote is hardly a call to violence, it reads like he accused the left of being prone to violence, which given the summer of 2020 is a reasonable conclusion to draw. Trump was clearly wrong to share that video, as was the man for uttering those words (though the fuller context in the article is noteworthy).

My final remark on this thread: on the topic of calls to violence, whataboutism won’t make the left look like the lesser of two evils. It’s a futile task.
Anon Emouse commented 2024-07-16 21:33:41 +1000

Well, I suppose it’s best to quote and source:

“And so I come full circle on this response and just want to encourage you with some substance that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” – Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage foundation

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/04/leader-of-the-pro-trump-project-2025-suggests-there-will-be-a-new-american-revolution-00166583

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-trump-shares-video-of-supporter-saying-the-only-good-democrat-is-a-dead-democrat/

Trump sharing a video of a supporter saying “The only good democrat is a good democrat”

https://www.wired.com/story/trump-shooting-far-right-calling-for-violence-war/

The far right calling for violence and civil war after the assassination attempt.

Kurt being willfully blind to this is telling.
mrscracker commented 2024-07-16 21:21:59 +1000

Not to mention the FBI’s Latin Mass infiltration memo…
At this point I guess we’re all on a surveillance list somewhere.
Peter Murphy commented 2024-07-16 19:05:10 +1000

You wear your Republicanism on your sleeve a little too much, Kurt. But, then you are associated with Mercator, which has slowly but surely moved to the right of politics. Very disappointing!
A Republican attempts to assassinate the Republican presidential candidate and the Republican VP Vance attempts to blame it all on the Democrats. Almost unbelievable, but this is what we now expect from Trump and his cronies.
Trump has been spewing hatred for years and people excuse him by saying, “Well, that’s how Trump is”!
Read the following and then try and explain how anybody could vote for Trump.
https://www.politico.eu/article/15-most-offensive-things-trump-campaign-feminism-migration-racism/
Steven Meyer commented 2024-07-16 17:26:23 +1000

LoL, kind of expected a screed about the evil “Biden regime” from Kurt.

Relax everyone, democracy is long gone. The new normal is corpocracy, government of, by and for the people who own/control large corporations.

In practice it’s the new feudalism with corporations in place of castles and armies of lawyers and spin doctors in place of knights.

As ever ideology/religion is used as a means of social control.

If you get down to it, the subconscious realisation of these trends is probably one reason for the birth dearth. Why have babies to sacrifice to feudal overlords who don’t need them anyway.

There is a part of me that quite enjoys the spectacle of the pathetic little Trumpies marching to their doom.

There is another part of me that thinks such extreme gullibility is sad. But, since there’s nothing I can do about it I may as well enjoy the spectacle.

My forecast for November. The Dems get wiped out. Sadly, they deserve it.
Kurt Mahlburg published this page in The Latest 2024-07-16 09:45:56 +1000