“You Might Be the Fascist”: MSNBC Host Joy Reid Defends Antifa Despite Its Violent, Anti-Free Speech History

This week we discussed the California Government teacher Gabriel Gipe who boasted about his flying an Antifa flag at Inderkum High School and explaining that he has only “180 days to turn them into revolutionaries.” On MSNBC, host Joy Reid went to social media to defend Antifa as an organization as merely those fighting fascism. She based that claim entirely on the name rather than the well-documented violent history of the group. Since I have written previously about Antifa and testified in the Senate on that history, I wanted to offer a counter view.  What is breathtaking is that Reid defends Antifa despite its attacks on journalists, bloggers, and other writers but says that criticism of the group indicates that you are also a fascist.

MSNBC’s Joy Reid went to Twitter to remind everyone that Antifa is “literally” short for anti-fascist. Thus, if you have a problem, you are by definition a fascist:

“If you’re constantly yelling “Antifa!” — which literally is short for “anti-fascists,” ding-ding-ding! … you might be the fascist they’re focused on. Just a thought…”

The first obvious response to this posting is that few journalists or thoughtful people who simply take an organization’s title as proof of its motives or its history. Few abusive organizations actually label themselves as violent or thuggish organizations.

The most extreme example is the most despised of all fascist organizations known as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Despite the name and adopting socialist programs, the Nazis also hunted down socialists, labor union members, and communists in addition to the commission of genocide and other unspeakable crimes. It would have been breathtaking in the late 1930s as they were cracking down on dissidents for a host in the United States to insist “If you’re constantly yelling “Nazi!” — which literally is short for “National Socialist German Workers’ Party” ding-ding-ding! … you might be the anti-labor people they’re focused on. Just a thought…”  In reality, the Nazis were the ultimate fascists, but their name said they were something else.

I have been a long critic of Antifa because of its violent history on college campuses and campaigns of intimidation and threats against anyone who opposes it. Antifa members regularly attack reporters, academics, and others in the name of anti-fascism.  Antifa is now the largest and most violent anti-free speech movement in the United States.  It is at its base a movement at war with free speech, defining the right itself as a tool of oppression. That purpose is evident in what is called the “bible” of the Antifa movement: Rutgers Professor Mark Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. Bray emphasizes the struggle of the movement against free speech: “At the heart of the anti-fascist outlook is a rejection of the classical liberal phrase that says, ‘I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’”

As I have written, Antifa is indeed more of a movement than a specific organization, but it has members and associated groups. Indeed, it has long been the “Keyser Söze” of the anti-free speech movement, a loosely aligned group that employs measures to avoid easy detection or association.  FBI Director Wray told Congress “And we have quite a number — and I’ve said this quite consistently since my first time appearing before this committee — we have any number of properly predicated investigations into what we would describe as violent anarchist extremists and some of those individuals self-identify with Antifa.”

I have repeatedly emphasized that extreme right groups are also responsible for recent violence and Wray made clear that far right violence still dominates in terms of a threat profile.  Moreover, I have opposed declaring Antifa a terrorist organization.  We have ample laws to deal with such extremist violence from the far left or far right. We do not need to rely on terrorism laws or most recently suggested sedition laws. Yet, Antifa is more than some “idea” and it has a discernible and violent organization. Indeed, the Antifa Handbook discusses how it uses an association of groups, including self-identified Antifa groups, to carry out attacks on critics and those with opposing views.

There are a variety of Antifa groups with long history of organized violence including Rose City Antifa. The RCA is arguably the oldest reference to “Antifa” in the United States was the Rose City Antifa (RCA) in Portland, Oregon. In 2013, various groups that were part of ARA, including RCA, formed a new coordinating organization referred to as the “Torch Network.” I detailed the violence of these groups in my Senate testimony”

“The signature of the group is a self-righteous, rage-fueled violence that parallels the fascistic groups that they claim to oppose. In 2002, ARA activists attacked a neo-Nazi demonstration. Twenty-eight ARA members were arrested but all of the charges were later dropped. In 2005, ARA protested National Socialist Movement (NSM) members in what became known as the 2005 Toledo Riot. Such counter protests by Antifa routinely result in violence. For example, in 2012, ARA members attacked a meeting of the Illinois European Heritage Association with hammers, bats and other weapons. Five members were convicted of assault and other crimes.That same year, almost two dozen members of the Hoosier Anti-Racist Movement, part of ARA, broke into the “Fifth Annual White Nationalist Economic Summit and Illinois White Nationalist Meet-and-Greet,” a group containing white supremacists and white nationalists.The attack on the Ashford House Restaurant led to criminal convictions of five members. In 2016, a confrontation between neo-Nazi groups and Antifa counter protesters resulted in a violent brawl. Seven people were stabbed and nine others were injured. Although the exact affiliation of each of the victims is unknown, both neo-Nazis and Antifa members were among the victims. In 2017, Antifa members joined an otherwise nonviolent counter protest and attacked five neo-Nazis, kicking, punching, and pepper spraying them until stopped by police. Thirteen individuals were arrested on charges including assault with a deadly weapon, obstructing a police officer, and other violations. On July 13, 2019, an Antifa member showed up at a privately owned ICE detention center and began “throwing incendiary devices at vehicles . . . and attempting to burn down buildings and a propane tank.” He was ultimately killed after pointing a gun at police. Antifa have also attacked journalists, including conservative journalist Andy Ngo, who was punched and hit with bear spray while trying to cover one protest.

Antifa mayhem is well-known to the courts. Violence between Antifa and Alt-Right protestors was addressed in Virginia, where “people were hurt and beaten on both sides” after Antifa members attacked protesters with baseball bats, mace spray, canes, sticks, bricks, bottles, and a metal pipe.The Ninth Circuit recently reversed a lower court that dismissed a battery claim against an Antifa member, who allegedly helped “unnamed assailants who attacked Plaintiff with pepper spray, bear mace, and flag poles, by participating in surrounding Plaintiff and by shining her flashlight in such a way as to enable the direct attacks,” may be liable on an aiding and abetting theory. In Arizona, Antifa members threw rocks, bottles, tear gas, an incendiary device, and a spear-like object at officers who set up a perimeter around a rally held by President Trump.”

Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook speaks proudly of Antifa’s organized violent history. He makes clear that what Antifa calls “self-defense” includes violence against police or anyone deemed a fascist. In a recent Washington Post opinion editorial criticizing President Trump’s attacks on Antifa as “delegitimizing militant protest,” Bray stated:

“I believe it’s true that most, if not all, members do wholeheartedly support militant self-defense against the police and the targeted destruction of police and capitalist property that has accompanied it this week. I’m also confident that some members of antifa groups have participated in a variety of forms of resistance during this dramatic rebellion.”