Juliette Kayyem Discusses Domestic Terrorism in the U.S.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Yes. So, I’m going to just put my law enforcement Homeland Security hat on because the politics here are just so insane that to state the obvious is viewed as political. It is not a political statement to say, as an investigator, what do these people, the people who are targeted, have in common, right. Any rational investigation would do that. It is of course that they are democrats or media institutions that are viewed as liberal, and they are all individuals who the president has either tweeted at or engaged at or said that, you know, they should be locked up. That is relevant for investigation because it’s going to go to motive and then motive goes to the pool of people who might be responsible for that. There’s sort of a wariness of saying that directly but you’d would be sort of — you know, you don’t want to be so careful that you’re not smart about this, which is there’s an obvious group of people who are targeted.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Yes. But, Juliette, you know, one of the things — that is absolutely clear and we shouldn’t hesitate to say the facts because those are the facts. Now, other thing though which is causing great consternation and nobody knows quite how to say it is, does this emanate from the top? Is it because of a tone that has been set at the very top of power in the United States? Before you answer that, I am going to play a mashup of important quotes from the president. Just listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Fake as hell, CNN. The worst. Hillary is a very dishonest person. If you look at the things she says, I mean, they’re so dishonest. I think Brenan is a very bad guy. And if you look at it, a lot of things happened under his watch. I think he’s a very bad person. And of course, the legendary low IQ, Maxine Waters. Low IQ person. It was very polarized under President Obama, unbelievably polarized under President Obama. They’ll go to a person holding a sign, who gets paid by Soros or somebody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: You know, obviously the White House is pushing back. They refuse to accept any kind of linkage. What do you do in law enforcement? What do you think about that? And, of course, the president has said that a lot of the anger in the tweet is purposely the false and inaccurate reporting of the mainstream media. In other words, he’s saying that’s what’s causing the anger in the country.

KAYYEM: So, I still believe that the president of the United States has a unique role in this country, of setting a tone. And supporters of Trump and defenders of the president, you know, are quick to remark in other instances that, you know, people love his straight talk, that they — that his supporters love the way he talks, they — you know, that they relate to that. So, it seems odd that they would say on the one hand, he speaks to them in a way that they like or they like to hear and that he’s not — you know, that that language might not — might have an impact which could lead — there’s no direct line, which could lead an individual to do something like this.