Jeh Johnson: Fears of Diversity, White Displacement Is a 'Principal Threat to Our Very Democracy'

Former Obama Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that white Americans with “fear over the increasing diversity of our nation” were a “principal threat to our very democracy.”

When asked about “violent white extremism,” Johnson said, “In my judgment, the long-term principal threat to national security is climate change. In the short-term, COVID-19. In the mid-term, it is what we saw vividly on January 6. There is a study out from the University of Chicago by Professor Robert Pape that does a study of the demographics of those who launched the attack on our Capitol on January 6, and it’s frightening. They tend to be college-educated.”

“They came from blue states as well as red states,” he continued. “They are all afraid of displacement. The baseless fear over the increasing diversity of our nation. What the study points out that was the tip of the iceberg. That iceberg did not evaporate on January 20. In my judgment, that’s a principal threat to our very democracy and represents a national security threat.”

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