Policy & Strategy

McCaul, Schiff warn terrorist threat real

Reps. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) agreed Sunday the threat of a terrorist attack still exists, but they are now on a smaller scale, rather than a Sept. 11-stye attack

“I believe the threat has become greater, not lesser,” said McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

{mosads}He warned that the White House has been touting a “false narrative and premise” that al Qaeda is now on the run because Osama bin Laden is dead. 

“I personally see it spreading like a spider web, like a wildfire in Africa through the Middle East,” McCaul said.

Schiff, who serves on the House Select Committee on Intelligence, said the U.S. would never be 100 percent safe. Attacks the size of 9/11 is now less likely, but proliferation of small-scale attacks like April’s Boston bombing is a risk, he said.

“I think we are safer from these big attacks, but we do see continued risk of these smaller attacks.”