Biden Administration Labeled Americans Who Opposed the COVID-19 Vaccination & Mask Mandates as “Domestic Violent Extremists”

NEW: Biden Administration Labeled Opponents Of Covid Mandates As “Domestic Violent Extremists,” Newly Released Documents Show

The designation infringed on the First Amendment and opened the door to investigating Americans for vaccine mandate skepticism.

The Biden Administration… pic.twitter.com/BFbffO0xUC

— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) May 23, 2025

… labeled Americans who opposed the COVID-19 vaccination and mask mandates as “Domestic Violent Extremists,” or DVEs, according to newly declassified intelligence records obtained by Public @shellenberger

@galexybrane and Catherine Herridge Reports. The designation created an “articulable purpose” for FBI or other government agents to open an “assessment” of individuals, which is often the first step toward a formal investigation, said a former FBI agent.

The report, which the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has declassified, claims that “anti government or anti authority violent extremists,” specifically militias, “characterize COVID-19 vaccination and mask mandates as evidence of government overreach.” A sweeping range of COVID narratives, the report states, “have resonated” with DVEs “motivated by QAnon.”

The FBI, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) coauthored the December 13, 2021 intelligence product whose title reads, “DVEs and Foreign Analogues May React Violently to COVID-19 Mitigation Mandates.”

The report cites criticism of mandates as “prominent narratives” related to violent extremism. These 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.

“It’s a way they could go to social media companies and say, ‘You don’t want to propagate domestic terrorism so you should take down this content,’” said former FBI agent Steve Friend.

HOLY CRAP! @DNIGabbard just confirmed the Biden administration put people on a domestic terr*r watchlist for simply not buying into the COVID-19 narrative.

This is one of the MANY things wrong with the Biden administration.

"When you look at the language of these documents that… pic.twitter.com/bIyxS56gl4

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) May 23, 2025

… I've declassified, first, the strategic implementation plan of the Biden administration's designation of potential violent domestic extremists."

"People who were using their First Amendment rights to oppose certain policies of the Biden administration. While some of the examples that are focused on there have to do with those who oppose the COVID vaccine mandates, those who opposed the mask mandates, parents who were concerned that their children going to school may be forcibly, uh, vaccinated with the COVID vaccine without the consent or awareness of parents."