Are you a “Domestic Violent Extremist?” If you were opposed to COVID-19 lockdown procedures or vaccine mandates, that’s how President Joe Biden’s administration viewed you.
You may not have noticed it, but last Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard put online two reports that demonstrated the lengths the past administration would go to label those who didn’t go along with their policies as not just problematic but threats.
Gabbard posted the documents to her X account after journalist Michael Shellenberger did a deeper dive into the documents: “The idea that the Biden administration viewed millions of Americans as a terrorist threat sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it’s not. Newly declassified documents show that in December 2021, the FBI and DHS labeled opponents of Covid mandates ‘Domestic Violent Extremists,’” he wrote.
Gabbard quote-posted him with two of the most damning documents.
“As Director of National Intelligence, I promised to root out and expose the politicization of intelligence,” she wrote.
“I recently declassified two reports that show how the Biden administration labeled Americans who disagreed with their policies as potential ‘domestic violent extremists,’ which was often followed by FBI investigations, surveillance, and government-directed social media censorship. This is a classic ploy to politicize intelligence and the national security state against the American people, undermining our Constitutionally-guaranteed rights and freedoms.”
As Director of National Intelligence, I promised to root out and expose the politicization of intelligence.
I recently declassified two reports that show how the Biden administration labeled Americans who disagreed with their policies as potential “domestic violent extremists,”… https://t.co/Fh3TQaS60N pic.twitter.com/BOarowktQa
— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) May 29, 2025
The first document was from the National Counterterrorism Center Current; the second was a “Special Analysis” by a Joint Analytic Cell authored by the NCTC, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI.
The first document “assess[ed] that some domestic violent extremists (DVEs) and their foreign analogues will threaten or mobilize to violence in opposition to new or expanding COVID-19-related mandates. In 2020, DVEs threatened or plotted violence against the healthcare sector and state and local government officials.
Did the Biden administration engage in criminal behavior?
“Since the advent of COVID-19 vaccines, DVEs have expanded their potential target set to include federal government officials, healthcare workers, or others who enforce vaccination mandates or participate in vaccination efforts,” including “at least a handful of identified antigovernment or antiauthority violent extremists (AGAAVEs) — specifically militia violent extremists (MVEs) — characterize COVID-19 vaccination and mask mandates as evidence of government overreach.”
This all sounds particularly menacing until you realize that this is the same administration that saw threats in Roman Catholics who were too serious about their religion (except for “devout Catholic” Joe Biden, naturally) and parents who took the slightest bit of interest in their child’s education and umbrage at the state shoving propaganda down their throats.
“A range of narratives about COVID-19 have resonated with MVEs, RMVEs, and DVEs motivated by QAnon, compounding the view that COVID-19 mandates justify violent responses,” the fuller declassified document, as posted by Shellenberger, stated. “Prominent narratives include the belief that COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe, especially for children, are part of a government or global conspiracy to deprive individuals of their civil liberties and livelihoods, or are designed to start a new social or political order.”
Document #1 pic.twitter.com/nWbYBsWoJ4
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) May 23, 2025
All this is missing in its febrile intensity is a quote from Jim Garrison saying that in frame 232 of the Zapruder film, you can see an unmasked, unvaccinated QAnon believer on the grassy knoll turn and shoot John F. Kennedy.
The second document stated that “[a]n overlapping set of sociopolitical grievances spurred domestic violent extremists (DVE) to plot attacks during 2021, fomenting a sustained threat of violence to the public and to democratic institutions, and events in 2022 will probably further exacerbate DVE activity. Adherents of several DVE ideologies continued to converge around anger at government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, immigration, and perceived election fraud — along with evolving conspiracy theories — thus increasing the likelihood that violent extremist messaging or an attack would encourage other DVEs to take action.”
And you won’t, again, believe, what this includes: “New COVID-19 mitigation measures — particularly mandates or endorsements of vaccines for school-age children — will probably spur plotting against the government, health care, or education sectors,” the document continued.
Document 2 (of 2) pic.twitter.com/qfFzEStLCj
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) May 23, 2025
Instead, it’s worth noting that the institution, which tried to use force to spur compliance with their view on the COVID-19 pandemic — a view widely discredited at this point from all angles, it’s worth noting — was the U.S. government, with mandates for vaccines that didn’t fully prevent the virus like originally advertised, mask mandates that didn’t work, school closures which hobbled our children’s educational future, and silencing of anyone who disagreed through deplatforming or censorship.
But you, as DNI Director Gabbard is reminding us, were the ones they viewed as an existential threat to the country as we were suffering the effects of their incompetence and oppressive tactics. Never forget that lesson, and never forget who the real hazard is.
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