White House indicates people making 'violent antisemitic threats' not classified as 'domestic terrorists'

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White House 'couldn't possibly answer' whether terrorists have already crossed over the southern border

The White House said Tuesday it "couldn't possibly answer" whether terrorists had already crossed over the southern border amid the ongoing crisis there and increased security threats in the Middle East.

The White House indicated Tuesday that people in the U.S. making "violent antisemitic threats" were not going to be classified as "domestic terrorists."

The comments, made by National Security Council spokesman John Kirby during the White House press briefing, ran in stark contrast to parents concerned about their children's education previously being described as "domestic terrorists" in a letter that prompted a directive from the Biden administration for the FBI to investigate.

"The people in this country making violent antisemitic threats. Are they domestic terrorists?" Fox News' Peter Doocy asked Kirby.

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Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and National Security Council spokesman John Kirby talk to reporters at the White House on Oct. 31, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

"I don't know that we're classifying people as domestic terrorists for that. I mean, that's really a question better left to law enforcement. I'm not aware that there's been such a characterization of that," Kirby responded.

Concern has been growing across the country, especially among Jewish Americans, about rising antisemitism following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel perpetrated by Hamas, a terrorist organization.

The antisemitic rhetoric has been most prominent across college campuses in the U.S. as left-wing students have formed pro-Palestinian protests opposing Israel and the actions it's taken to destroy Hamas in the wake of the attack.

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Campus leaders and Jewish voices are sounding the alarm on antisemitism at U.S. colleges following Hamas' terrorist attack against Israeli civilians. A Cornell University law professor is calling for the school to evaluate antisemitism on campus following anti-Israel events across multiple college campuses across the country. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images | Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

The growing hostile rhetoric includes what appears to be a globally orchestrated antisemitic campaign that many students fear will incite physical violence on campuses as the war escalates. 

"Knowing you're sitting in class next to someone who advocates the destruction of Israel is frightening," one Georgetown Law School student told Fox News Digital earlier this month.

The White House's comments come just one month after House Republicans grilled Attorney General Merrick Garland over his 2021 directive that the FBI use counterterrorism tools to investigate parents who had shown up at school board meetings across the country to push back on critical race theory and gender ideology-related policies in schools.

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Harvard University students protest Israel. (Joseph Prezioso/Contributor/Getty Images)

Garland's directive was initiated after the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent a letter to President Biden that year asking for parents protesting at school board meetings to be federally looked into, claiming school officials were facing threats and violence at meetings. 

Most significantly, the NSBA requested that parents' actions should be examined under the PATRIOT Act as "domestic terrorists." The PATRIOT Act was signed into law in 2001 by President George Bush after the Sept. 11 terror attacks to combat terrorism and expand the boundaries of surveillance. 

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Additionally, the White House refused during Monday's press briefing to call anti-Israel protesters "extremists," despite the rising fear among Jewish students.

Fox News' Kerry J. Byrne and Hannah Grossman contributed to this report.