Politics

Major Figures Work To Mainstream Violent Antifa Protesters

ZACH GIBSON/AFP/Getty Images

Alex Pfeiffer White House Correspondent
Font Size:

Journalists and major liberal news outlets have compared violent American flag-burning protesters to soldiers storming the beaches of Normandy — all while downplaying the leftists’ violence.

The protesters, known as antifa (short for anti-fascist), often advocate for communism and have been deemed a domestic terrorist movement by New Jersey. Persons associated with the movement have previously stabbed a police horse and beat people with bike locks.

The work to mainstream the violent leftists came as a response to President Trump saying that “both sides” were responsible for violence at a white nationalist rally over the weekend in Charlottesville, Va.

Indeed, many counter-protesters showed up with bats and maced rally-goers. Trump pointed this out Tuesday and said counter protesters were “swinging clubs” as they “came charging at, as you say, at the alt-right.”

However, the actions of the antifa in Charlottesville is supposedly comparable to fighting Nazis in World War II, according to journalists and prominent liberals.

“Watching ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ a movie about a group of very aggressive alt-left protesters invading a beach without a permit,” The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg tweeted Tuesday night. While former Hillary Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon posted a photo Wednesday of troops on D-Day, and remarked, “Also confronted the Nazis without a permit.”

It seemed everyone got a similar memo as CNN’s Chris Cuomo tweeted the same photo as Fallon, but with words superimposed on it.

A piece from The Washington Post didn’t compare antifa comparably to World War II soldiers, but it did downplay violence from the movement.

“The vast majority of anti-fascist organizing is nonviolent. But their willingness to physically defend themselves and others from white supremacist violence and preemptively shut down fascist organizing efforts before they turn deadly distinguishes them from liberal anti-racists,” Dartmouth College historian Mark Bray wrote in “Who are the antifa?”

Bray went on to rationalize the group’s violent history, claiming, “Antifascists argue that after the horrors of chattel slavery and the Holocaust, physical violence against white supremacists is both ethically justifiable and strategically effective. We should not, they argue, abstractly assess the ethical status of violence in the absence of the values and context behind it.”

CNN likewise downplayed violence perpetrated by Antifa groups. An article published by CNN failed to mention the physical violence emanating from protesters. It said that the group is “controversial” due to being “known for causing damage to property during protests.” (RELATED: Police Attacked, 14 Arrested As Antifa And Pro-Trump Marchers Clash In Portland)