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Anderson Cooper 360

DHS unlikely to meet its deadline to release threat assessment, draft flagged White supremacist threat

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

News

3.73.8K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2020

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Department of Homeland Security is unlikely to meet its deadline to release its homeland threat assessment. All three drafts said that among domestic extremists, White supremacists will be the most “persistent and lethal threat” in the U.S. through 2021. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany deflected when she was asked why the President won’t fully denounce White supremacy, instead pointing to Trump’s prior comments and even blamed the media for popularizing the far-right group known as the Proud Boys, who Trump told to “stand back and standby” at the first 2020 Presidential debate. Elizabeth Neumann, Former Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, worked to develop policies, laws and programs to help prevent domestic terrorism. She joins AC360 to explain why she says what Trump is doing is treasonous. Plus, a former close friend and adviser to Melania Trump shares phone recordings between her and the First Lady with AC360. Stephanie Winston Wolkoff’s role in the East Wing was terminated in 2018 after an investigation revealed her firm was paid nearly $26 million to put together President Trump’s inauguration. She says all but $1.6 million was paid to subcontractors and vendor. She tells Anderson Cooper “the Trump administration along with the Presidential Inauguration Committee tandemly created a narrative I wouldn’t follow and I needed to be the scapegoat with.”   Airdate: October 1, 2020   Guests: Elizabeth Neumann Stephanie Winston Wolkoff   To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Good evening, so what happens when the president of the United States is contributing by his

0:04.3

words and by his silence, including today, to what his own top experts in the Department

0:08.6

of Homeland Security call the most persistent and lethal domestic security threat now facing

0:13.4

America.

0:14.4

And what do you do when that threat coincides with and could be direct to add an election

0:18.4

that the president is not promised to peacefully abide by?

0:20.8

Now, in a moment we're going to be joined by a former top official at the Department of

0:24.5

Homeland Security, Republican who served the president, who calls what he's doing now

0:28.2

in the face of that threat, treasonous.

0:31.1

That's the word she chose to use, treasonous.

0:33.9

This lethal danger is described in the Department of Homeland Security's own state of the Homeland

0:38.6

threat assessment 2020.

0:40.0

Now, that was supposed to come out today, and just about an hour ago, we got word,

0:44.1

it would not be released.

0:45.1

No reason was given by the DHS for the delay, only that there was, quote, no statutory

0:49.8

deadline for the product, unquote, meaning no law said it has to be out by today, so

0:55.2

shut up and wait.

0:56.6

As you think about that statement, consider that at the same time some drafts of the report

1:01.0

were made public last month, a DHS whistleblower named Brian Murphy said the top officials in

1:06.4

the Department of Homeland Security were concerned about the way the report would reflect

1:10.4

on President Trump, according to the whistleblower, they wanted less emphasis on white supremacists

1:15.2

and more on radical left-wing groups and less about Russian disinformation campaigns.

...

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