District of Columbia National Guard stand outside the Capitol, Wednesday night, Jan. 6, 2021, after a day of rioting protesters. (AP Photo / John Minchillo)

President Joe Biden has directed law enforcement and intelligence officials in his administration to study the threat of domestic violent extremism in the United States, an undertaking being launched weeks after a mob of insurgents loyal to Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol.

A chain blocks the sidewalk entrance to the front steps of the Maine State House, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021, in Augusta, Maine. (AP Photo / Robert F. Bukaty)

With the FBI warning of potential for violence at all state capitols, the ornate halls of government and symbols of democracy looked more like heavily guarded U.S. embassies in war-torn countries.

A member of the Pennsylvania Capitol Police stands guard at the entrance to the Pennsylvania Capitol Complex in Harrisburg, Pa., Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021. (Jose F. Moreno / The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
,

While monitoring online chatter about protests at state capitols in advance of next week’s presidential inauguration, the Seattle Times came across a chilling description for journalists: soft targets.

This Aug. 26, 2020, file photo shows the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind. (AP Photo / Michael Conroy, File)

All federal prisons in the United States have been placed on lockdown, with officials aiming to quell any potential violence that could arise behind bars as law enforcement prepares for potentially violent protests across the country in the run-up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday. 

Pro-Trump supporters breach security gates at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (WTTW News via CNN)

The deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol one week ago brought together many extremist organizations, from right-wing militias to members of the Proud Boys. We discuss those groups and the potential threats they pose.

Protesters storm the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (WTTW News via CNN)

“I was not surprised by the violence,” said Tom Mockaitis, a security and terrorism specialist. “I was surprised and appalled by how poorly prepared to defend the United States Capitol the security apparatus was.” 

An image taken from video footage shows downtown Nashville, Tennessee, in the seconds before an explosion rocked the area on Dec. 25, 2020. (WTTW News via CNN)

Many details surrounding the Christmas Day bombing in downtown Nashville remain unclear, but the incident has renewed concerns about the rise of domestic terrorism, and the proliferation of racist ideology by white supremacists. 

In this Sept. 11, 2017, file photo, the Tribute in Light illuminates in the sky above the Lower Manhattan area of New York, as seen from across the Hudson River in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo / Jason DeCrow, File)

In a year when the coronavirus pandemic has reshaped countless American rituals, even the commemoration of 9/11 could not escape unchanged.

In this Jan. 6, 2010, file courtroom artist’s drawing Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana, center, appears before Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago’s federal court. (AP Photo / Verna Sadock, File)

A former Chicago businessman imprisoned for aiding terrorist groups has been arrested in Los Angeles to face murder charges in India for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed more than 160 people, U.S. prosecutors said Friday.

An overcrowded hospital in Brooklyn deals with COVID-19 cases. (WTTW News via CNN)
,

Could hospitals and supermarkets become targets for terror groups looking to exploit the pandemic to advance their racist agenda? We speak with international terrorism expert Robert Pape.

Adel Daoud, 25, appears before Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman on Monday, May 6, 2019 in Chicago. (Courtroom sketch by Thomas Gianni)

Federal prosecutors say the 16-year sentence given last year to Adel Daoud, who attempted to detonate what he thought was a bomb outside a downtown bar, is “substantively unreasonable” and failed to account for Daoud’s “commitment to violence.”

This file image made from video posted on a militant website April 29, 2019, purports to show the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, being interviewed by his group’s Al-Furqan media outlet. (Al-Furqan media via AP, File)

Eliminating the Islamic State group’s elusive leader gives President Donald Trump a new argument for leaving Syria, but the U.S. military campaign against the extremists is far from finished.

In this May 15, 2015 file photo, visitors gather near the pools at the 9/11 Memorial in New York. As they have done 17 times before, a crowd of victims' relatives is expected at the site on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019 to observe the anniversary the deadliest terror attack on American soil. (AP Photo / Frank Franklin II)

Eighteen years after the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, the nation is still grappling with the aftermath at ground zero, in Congress and beyond. 

“Hate has not place in America,” President Donald Trump said Monday, Aug. 5, 2019, after weekend shootings left more than 30 people dead in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

President Donald Trump condemns hate, but says hateful rhetoric and mental illness are to blame for mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso – not guns.

American John Walker Lindh is seen in this undated file photo obtained Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2002, from a religious school where he studied for five months in Bannu, 190 miles southwest of Islamabad, Pakistan. (AP Photo, File)

John Walker Lindh, 38, was released Thursday from the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. He spent more than 17 years in prison after pleading guilty to providing support to the Taliban.

Janet Napolitano (Credit: University of California)

How safe is America from terror attacks and other threats? Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano talks about whether the U.S. has gotten safer since the 9/11 terror attacks.