FLASHBACK: Biden downplays ISIS threat to US, repeatedly says White supremacy 'most lethal' danger

"According to the intelligence community, terrorism from White supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today. Not ISIS, not al Qaeda - White supremacists," Biden said in June 2021 on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. 

The comment came just weeks after he declared during the State of the Union that year, "We won't ignore what our intelligence agencies have determined to be the most lethal terrorist threat to the homeland today: White supremacy is terrorism."

The shocking attack has resurrected Biden's previous rhetoric on White supremacy and the state of national security, which was also promoted by administration leaders such as Attorney General Merrick Garland. 

"In the FBI's view, the top domestic violent extremist threat comes from 'racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, specifically those who advocated for the superiority of the White race,'" Garland declared in May 2021 before the Senate Appropriations Committee of the top threats to the U.S.

"I have not seen a more dangerous threat to democracy than the invasion of the Capitol," Garland said at the time, calling it "an attempt to interfere with the fundamental element of our democracy, a peaceful transfer of power."

Biden has also cited the threat of White supremacy in more recent public remarks, including during his commencement address to Howard University in 2023. 

Following the attack on Wednesday morning, conservative social media users and critics of the Biden administration resurrected Biden's previous comments on White supremacy, quipping that the comments have "not aged well."  

The brother of the suspected terrorist told The New York Times that Jabbar had been raised Christian, but converted to Islam. The sibling, Abdur Jabbar, underscored that his brother does not represent the Islamic faith and instead called his actions an example of "radicalization."

"What he did does not represent Islam," he added. "This is more some type of radicalization, not religion."