FBI National Security Branch Operations Director Michael Glasheen testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Thursday that the nation's most immediate violent threat is Antifa.
When pressed by Representative Bennie Thompson to provide even the most basic details about this supposedly terrifying organization—like, say, where it's located—Glasheen responded with awkward silence before offering the reassuring explanation that the FBI is "building out the infrastructure right now."
Thompson, clearly impressed by this master class in national security expertise, asked the obvious follow-up: What does that mean? Glasheen couldn't offer anything concrete, explaining that details about Antifa membership numbers and locations are "fluid" and "ongoing for us to understand."
Yes, the same FBI that can track down international terrorist networks apparently cannot locate the headquarters of America's number-one domestic threat. One might think this is because former FBI Director Christopher Wray testified in 2020 that Antifa is "not a group or an organization" but rather "a movement or an ideology." But surely the Trump administration wouldn't designate a loosely organized anti-fascist movement as a terrorist organization just to target political opposition.
Social media users described the testimony as "total amateur hour" in American law enforcement, with Democrats on the committee pointing out that if your top threat has "no headquarters, no organization, and no definition," then perhaps it's not actually a top threat.
But the real genius here is unmistakable: Why waste FBI resources investigating actual organized domestic threats when you can hunt for the headquarters of an ideology? It's like declaring war on "being mean" and then demanding to know the CEO's address.
