GOP rep: White supremacist threat overstated

A Republican lawmaker on the House Homeland Security Committee on Sunday blasted the idea that white supremacists could be more dangerous than Muslim extremists.

Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) said he totally “disregarded” a New York Times report, based on findings from the New America Foundation, that white supremacists, anti-government extremists and others have killed nearly twice as many people as radical Muslims since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

{mosads}“Every murder is horrible,” King said on ABC’s “This Week.” “There is no comparison between these white supremacists and an internationally coordinated movement which, if the attacks were not stopped, we could have thousands and thousands of deaths.”

King’s comments came just over a week after Dylann Roof, an alleged white supremacist, was accused of killing nine people at a historic black church Charleston, S.C.

The Department of Homeland Security is also warning Americans to be especially vigilant in the coming weeks due to the possibility for terrorist attacks related to Independence Day.

“Everything should be investigated, everything should be stopped,” King said. “But to compare these deranged white supremacists with an organized international terrorist movement, that’s The New York Times at its worst.”

King sought to highlight the widespread damage from what he said were organized attacks by Muslim extremists, including the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, to show the greater threat.

“Just seven years ago, the attempted subway attacks here in New York would have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people, if that were not intercepted,” King said.