House Republicans and Democrats lobbed political broadsides at each other on Tuesday, with each side claiming their opponents’ ideological extremists are more dangerous than the other.
A subcommittee of the Homeland Security Committee — the Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability panel — held a hearing titled “‘Mostly Peaceful: Countering Left-Wing Organized Violence.”
Republicans focused on the nationwide 2020 riots by groups such as ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter following the death of George Floyd. Democrats countered that “right-wing” extremism caused more deaths in recent years through deadly mass shooters than left-wing activists who largely destroyed property and caused havoc for law enforcement.
“The left-wing lawlessness Americans experienced during the summer of 2020 was, unfortunately, only the beginning of a long season of political violence and intimidation,” said subcommittee Chairman Dan Bishop, North Carolina Republican. “We’ve now seen this violence perpetrated against law enforcement as well as brave Americans like Riley Gaines, who dare to exercise their freedom of speech. This increasing political violence cannot remain unchecked.”
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland, said that from an incident standpoint concerning killings between 2013 and 2022, 75% of the deaths were caused by right-wing extremism.
“That’s not to say that there is no left-wing extremism issue, or that there aren’t solutions that we should take or steps that we should take to address them, but it is to say that from a standpoint of violence and the risk of death to citizens here in the United States, right-wing extremism is a greater problem,” Mr. Ivey said.
Witnesses who testified before the panel were Ms. Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer and spokeswoman for the Independent Women’s Forum; Scott G. Erickson, former deputy chief of staff at U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Amy Spitalnick, incoming chief executive officer of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and Julio Rosas, senior writer for Townhall Magazine.
Ms. Gaines testified about her experience speaking about her views on transgender women competing in women’s sports and the backlash she received when protesters on a college campus refused to allow her to leave a building for several hours.
“As I ended my presentation, protesters in the room opened the locked doors and a chaotic flood of shouting, angry protesters forced their way in,” she told lawmakers. “They rushed at me with fists raised, most shouting and angry faces coming around me. They flicker the lights and ultimately then turned the lights off. The room filled with glares of cell phone flashlights, some in my face, and I realized I was at the mercy of the crowd and I was assaulted.”
However, Democrats on the committee referenced recent deadly incidents as examples of “right-wing extremism,” including mas shootings at a grocery in Buffalo, New York; at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; at a shopping mall in Allen, Texas and an incident in Brownsville, Texas, where a suspect plowed into a group of migrants with his vehicle.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, countered that transgender individuals carried out four mass shootings in the past five years.
“Colorado Springs shooter, identified as non-binary. The Denver shooter identified as trans. The Aberdeen shooter identified as trans,” she said. “Audrey Hale, the Nashville shooter, identified as trans, but trans people only make up about one-half of 1% of the population.”
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.