Leftist Katie Couric Goes to Bat for Discredited Study That Painted Republicans as Dangerous, Claims Most Domestic Extremists are Conservative
Katie Couric, a prominent journalist formerly associated with major news networks, has come under criticism for citing a controversial Cato Institute study claiming that most domestic terrorism in the U.S. is carried out by far-right extremists. Couric questioned why the Department of Justice removed this study from its website, highlighting its conclusion that far-right attacks have resulted in more American deaths than other forms of domestic terrorism since 1975. Though, critics argue that the study is flawed as it excludes significant left-wing violence, such as the 2020 Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots, and even omits the September 11 attacks. It also allegedly misclassifies certain attacks, like the Oklahoma City bombing, which some say was motivated by anti-government sentiments rather than right-wing ideology.Additional criticisms note that the study only counts killings, ignoring other notable politically motivated violent acts. Couric faced backlash for promoting what some claim is a misleading narrative,while the study’s author defended the findings,suggesting right-wing extremists are often denied by their own supporters. the debate highlights ongoing disputes over how domestic terrorism data is interpreted and politicized.
Katie Couric, a longtime member of the establishment media, is facing criticism for using a discredited Cato Institute study to assert that most domestic terrorists are conservative right-wingers.
Previously a supposed journalist for CNN, NBC News, CBS News, and ABC News, Couric on Thursday published a post to the social media platform X complaining about the Department of Justice.
“Why would the US Justice Department remove a study from its website last week that concluded that far-right extremists have killed far more Americans than any other domestic terror group?” she wrote.
Included with the post was a graph from the Cato Institute study showing that there have been more right-wing politically motivated murders since 1975 than left-wing politically motivated murders.
Why would the US Justice Department remove a study from its website last week that concluded that far-right extremists have killed far more Americans than any other domestic terror group? .
The now-archived report, titled “What National Institute of Justice Research Tells Us… pic.twitter.com/2EtBi52lmu
— Katie Couric (@katiecouric) September 25, 2025
“This study, based on research spanning three decades, represented one of the most comprehensive government assessments ever of domestic terrorism patterns,” Couric wrote in her post.
“It found that ‘militant, nationalistic, white supremacist violent extremism has increased in the United States’ and that ‘the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism,’” she added.
As previously documented, the problems with the Cato Institute study are numerous.
Not only does it not count all the acts of violence that erupted during the violent Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots of 2020, but it even excludes the Sept. 11 terror attack.
The study also misclassifies some domestic terror attacks as right-wing when the evidence suggests they weren’t politically motivated, according to PJ Media author and columnist Matt Margolis.
Does anyone else find it odd that @CatoInstitute failed to include the George Floyd riots and other leftist violence from 2020-2021 in this chart? pic.twitter.com/4rvqzbp8jC
— Matt Margolis (@mattmargolis) September 17, 2025
Consider, for instance, the Oklahoma City bombing.
“As I suspected, [the study] categorized Timothy McVeigh’s ideology as ‘right-wing,’ but this classification is debatable,” Margolis wrote recently for PJ Media.
“McVeigh was an anti-government extremist whose rage stemmed from anger over the 1993 Waco siege and the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff, not from conservative ideology,” he added.
McVeigh was also reportedly a pro-abortion agnostic.
According to Amber Duke of the Daily Caller, the Cato Institute study only “counts killings, so we miss highly notable political violence like the two assassination attempts on Trump, the 2017 Republican baseball shooting, the attempted stabbing of Lee Zeldin, a neighbor attacking Sen. Rand Paul, the attempted assassination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a bomb planted under a Fox News van that failed to detonate, and others.”
Responding to Couric’s post, critics assailed her for propagating what they charged was a “bulls**t” narrative.
Because it was bullshit. Here’s a good example. The murder of AARON DONALDSON by Antifa was not categorized as left wing violence. Nor were the BLM riots. SO the entire thing is tainted. The definitions of what constitutes left wing violence is the problem.
— JWS08050 (@jws08050) September 26, 2025
Critics also argued that the Cato Institute study’s author, Alex Nowrasteh, is either delusional or an outright left-winger.
In an X post published on Friday, Nowrasteh accused right-wingers of denying “that their terrorists even exist while left-wingers are kind of embarrassed, admit it, and move on.”
Have you noticed that right-wingers deny that their terrorists even exist while left-wingers are kind of embarrassed, admit it, and move on?
— The Alex Nowrasteh (@AlexNowrasteh) September 27, 2025
Critics pointed out that it was the left that spent days denying that Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated by an alleged left-winger.
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