CNN’s Kayyem Pushes Back Against Referring to NYC Subway Attack as ‘Terrorism’ — January 6 Had ‘a Lot of Domestic Terrorists’

Wednesday on CNN’s “At This Hour,” network national security analyst Juliette Kayyem argued against referring to the New York City subway station shooting as an act of terrorism.

Frank James was taken into custody for the shooting that injured more than two dozen people and is expected to be facing a terrorism-related charge.

Kayyem protested that the term “terrorism” should be saved for political acts, such as the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. She claimed the term would “lose its meaning” if it were used to describe the NYC shooting.

“The idea that this only has to be a foreign act as we know now, you know, January 6, there was a lot of domestic terrorists,” Kayyem asserted. “There are people who, and this the majority of the thread, as the FBI tells us, but I am a strong proponent of reserving the word ‘terrorism’ for a political motivation because it is different. And so, I know this was terrifying. I know it was terrible for the people who encountered it. But if we use the word ‘terror’ for every incident like this, it’s going to lose its meaning, and what it means to prosecute someone for using violence to change our politics, to change our democracy.”

She continued, “Look, we have that problem. We have the domestic terrorism problem. We don’t need to create it for every person who may have a mental disorder, who may be for a variety of reasons unrelated to politics, that’s done something terrible. And so, that’s where I stand, but I recognize that the word, you know, what happened was terrifying.”

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