Tulsi Gabbard warns vague federal definition of 'domestic extremists' will further endanger civil liberties
The increasingly powerful federal surveillance state could be problematic for political opponents, ex-lawmaker says.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former Hawaii Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard joined "Fox News Primetime" and warned host Mark Steyn of an ongoing shift in the federal surveillance state, including the fact the national security apparatus has overseen Big Tech becoming "proxies" as government messaging continues to promise action against vaguely-defined "domestic extremists."
STEYN: There's something very bizarre going on in America right now. Normally, the state is very hard to steer, like the titanic. Yet, all of our key agencies in the so-called intelligence community have turned on a dime and decided that the biggest threat to America is domestic extremism -- whatever that is.
GABBARD: Whatever that is is exactly the glaring problem with this, Mark. As this new campaign and focus against White supremacists, racists, domestic extremists is launched, none of these terms are clearly defined or really defined at all. If you look at the term white supremacist, this is something that many agree, it's the philosophy of the KKK and Nazis -- people who believe the White race is superior, and therefore must have power and control over all other races.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But, we live in a world's now where we have people in power who say, if you are White, you are a White supremacist whether you know it or not. If you're on the White, you are a racist... If you follow that approach, that means that any White person in America could be the target of surveillance."
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[The government is] not only [conducting surveillance] through our own government agencies, but also looking to these big social media tech giants, whether it's Facebook, Google, YouTube, or others to essentially act as proxies. We've seen reports recently that our national security apparatus is directly working with these social media giants to further encroach upon our civil liberties and upon our privacy and to further surveill the actions, activities, words, thoughts, political affiliations or whatnot of everyday Americans across the country.
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