During a portion of an interview with NBC News that was aired on Tuesday’s “NBC Nightly News,” FBI Director Christopher Wray stated that the agency isn’t monitoring the protests on college campuses because they “don’t monitor protests” as a general rule, “but we do share intelligence about specific threats of violence with campuses, with state and local law enforcement,” and “when violence ensues, that’s when we get concerned, when you have threats of violence.”
Host Lester Holt asked, “There’s an environment right now we’re seeing play out on some college campuses, the protests over what’s happening in Gaza. Are you watching that warily, are you concerned about threats emanating from these demonstrations?”
Wray responded, “Well, of course, demonstrations themselves are not something that we the FBI get involved in, but when violence ensues, that’s when we get concerned, when you have threats of violence. And so, we have seen, even before October 7, we saw a significant increase, especially in antisemitic threats and antisemitic violence. And since October 7, that number has gone up quite substantially.”
Holt then asked, “Are you actively monitoring these protests?”
Wray answered, “We don’t monitor protests, but we do share intelligence about specific threats of violence with campuses, with state and local law enforcement, but we don’t monitor protests.”
In another part of the interview, Wray said, “So, we thought that even before October 7, if you and I were having this conversation then, we would have said that the terrorism threat was already elevated. But post-October 7, it’s gone to a whole [other] level.”
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