An advisor to Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he opposes President Donald Trump’s decision to classify antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, saying they’re just “a loose collection of people on the internet.”
“First of all, the United States has the capacity to designate foreign organizations as terrorist organizations, not domestic organizations,” former Biden National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Wednesday during a Foreign Policy conference call. “So we can start with the fact that this is not a kind of credible announcement that was made, it was a purely political announcement.”
In addition to Sullivan, the conference call featured the website’s editor-in-chief Jonathan Tepperman, as well as American Enterprise Institute foreign policy expert Kori Schake. Sullivan admitted he was “not a deep expert” on antifa, but said he did not believe the group warranted a terrorist designation. (RELATED: Joe Biden’s New Adviser Previously Called Former VP ‘The Problem’ On Criminal Justice Reform)
“I’m not a deep expert on antifa such as it is, but from what I do know, I think antifa is probably better described as a loose collection of people on the Internet who share tactics and tools and, you know, people individually identify as part of this loose network, not so much an organization with the structure and leadership and funding and so forth,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan served in the Obama administration for over three years, including one as Biden’s national security adviser. Sullivan also served as the chief foreign policy adviser to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump announced this past weekend that the U.S. would designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization as a result of the organization’s history of violence. The announcement came after a week full of violent protests that occurred in response to the death of George Floyd, after a video surfaced showing four Minnesota police officers pinning Floyd to the ground before his death. All of the officers involved have been fired and charged with crimes related to Floyd’s death.
Antifa stands for “anti-fascist,” and has a history of violently protesting against conservative speakers, and in favor of left-wing causes.