AG Merrick Garland says Oklahoma City bombing, Tulsa race massacre 'product of same kind of hatred'

Attorney General Merrick Garland spoke out against domestic extremism on Monday while visiting the sites of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing in his first official trip since his confirmation.

In an interview with ABC News, Garland said both incidents were rooted in the same form of hatred and domestic extremism. "I’d been to Oklahoma before, but I’d never been here and this is a moment where it’s important, you know, to come to a place like this," Garland told ABC News. "The kind of devastation that happens here is a product of the same kind of hated that led to the bombing in Oklahoma City." As a federal prosecutor, Garland played a key role in the government’s investigation and eventual prosecution of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the two domestic terrorists who carried about the Oklahoma City bombing. McVeigh was later sentenced to death for his role in the attack, while Nichols received life in prison.