On Nicolle Wallace’s MSNBC program yesterday, Frank Figliuzzi, former Assistant Director of the FBI, shared his thoughts on the missed signals documented in The Washington Post’s blockbuster report on the January 6th coup attempt:
"Plans to kill cops, repeated discussions about how to do it, how to breach security, how to travel there… That's not aspirational anymore. There's too many people saying it with too much specificity" – @FrankFigliuzzi1 w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/cBqLtYVHpt
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) November 1, 2021
We talked about the report a bit yesterday. Figliuzzi’s take is interesting because he knows the FBI. He says there’s a “willful blindness” in federal agencies about domestic terrorism, particularly seeing “white folks” as a threat. He’s right about that.
He says FBI Director Wray’s excuses for the missed signals have been 1) the FBI doesn’t investigate ideology but rather violence, and 2) it’s hard to tell real threats from “aspirational” babbling from online blowhards. Figliuzzi says the report makes those excuses look weak because all over the country, agency outposts were picking up operational plans from specific people — angry Trump supporters — and details on travel, weapons, how to breach security, etc. He’s right about that too.
Figliuzzi also points out that Republicans like Condoleezza Rice are full of shit when they urge us to “move on.” He notes that after 9/11, Congress turned all the agencies upside down in an attempt to make sure something like that couldn’t happen again. I think many of us would argue Congress overcorrected on 9/11 and caused more problems than it solved, but Figliuzzi is right again.
This Congress is trying to get to the bottom of what happened and make sure it never happens again. They’ll need help, and time is running out:
Holding Steve Bannon in criminal contempt was an early test of our democracy’s recovery.
Now, it is in the hands of the Department of Justice.
To do justice. pic.twitter.com/isp9KkW121
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) October 22, 2021
Open thread.