Trump, Barr, and the GOP present antifa as a major threat in the US, but they're not killing people — unlike white supremacists
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John Haltiwanger
Jul 29, 2020, 02:36 IST
Attorney General William Barr testifies during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 28, 2020.Chip Somodevilla/Reuters
President Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly portrayed antifa as a major threat in the US, with scant evidence to back them up.
Data on extremism in the US shows that far-right groups are tied to dozens of fatal incidents in recent years, while antifa has not been found responsible for any killings.
Recent federal arrest records, and other evidence, contradict Barr's assertion.
The Trump administration has granted disproportionate attention to antifa while doing little to acknowledge the fatal violence perpetrated by far-right groups.
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The Trump administration has repeatedly portrayed antifa as a major threat in the US, despite little to no evidence backing up this assertion.
"Antifa is heavily represented in the recent riots," Barr told lawmakers, as Republicans on the committee simultaneously characterized antifa as terrorists.
Though Barr has repeatedly said that antifa is intricately involved with violence and unrest connected to recent protests across the US, there's virtually no evidence to back this up. Investigations of arrest records linked to the protests found few people were affiliated with organized groups. In June, for example, NPR reviewed court documents of 51 individuals facing federal charges connected to the unrest, and none were alleged to have links to antifa.
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As Barr inflates the threat of antifa, recent intelligence assessments found that far-right individuals associated with the "boogaloo" movement may soon target Washington, DC.
Antifa has been tied to violence and vandalism in recent years, but there's no record of anyone affiliated with antifa killing anyone. Meanwhile, research shows far-right and white supremacist groups pose a far more significant and deadly threat.
Data on extremism in the US also shows that antifa, a loosely affiliated network of left-wing, anti-fascist activists, has not been found responsible for a single death in the past 25 years, based on database assembled by researchers at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and reviewed by The Guardian. During the same time period (1994-present day), US-based far-right and white supremacist groups conducted attacks that left at least 329 people dead.
Far-right extremists killed at least 38 people in 2019, according to domestic terrorism statistics from the Anti-Defamation League, and the far-right was responsible for 76% of all extremist-related murders. There was just one death in an attack tied to antifa in which the attacker himself, Willem van Spronsen, was killed.
The level of focus granted to antifa, a decentralized group with no leader, by President Donald Trump and his allies is disproportionate to the threat it poses. At the same time, the Trump administration has done little to acknowledge the fatal violence perpetrated by far-right groups, especially white supremacists.
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