While some have tried to pretend that Antifa is not that bad-- after all, it's short for anti-fascist," so how bad can they really be?-- others have asserted without any evidence that it's actually white supremacists posing as Antifa that is responsible for the violence across the country. On Tuesday's CNN Newsroom, hosts Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto claimed to have found the evidence needed: a lone tweet from a since banned Twitter account.
Harlow began the segment by hyping the singular tweet as "a really important development" because, "of all the talk you heard about Antifa, from the president, et cetera, and these protests, et cetera. Twitter overnight saying an account that called for violence and claimed to be part of Antifa was actually run by a group of well-known white supremacists."
Sciutto then joined in, "To be clear, the president, not just the president, but also the attorney general have been pinning all the violence, all the looting, on the far left for days now."
After introducing CNN technology reporter Donie O'Sullivan, Sciutto asked him, "What we're seeing here is you have this coming from multiple directions, is that right?"
O'Sullivan replied:
Absolutely, Jim, yes. The president specifically has been calling out Antifa, which is a far-left group who have used violence in the past, even threatening on Sunday to label them a terrorist organization. So with that in mind, a tweet began circulating on Sunday, and I think we can bring it up on screen, that claimed to be from Antifa, the tweet read 'alert, tonight’s the night, comrades. Tonight we say ‘F’ the city and we move into residential areas, the white hoods and take what's ours.' Now, Twitter now tells us that was not actually run by left-wing activists it was run by white nationalists.
O'Sullivan belatedly conceded, "It is important to say that, you know this doesn't mean that Antifa is doing nothing here." However, he also declared, "But what this does confirm is suspicions that right-wingers are posing online as Antifa to inflame tensions."
At this point, O'Sullivan's webcam stopped working and the segment ended.
While white supremacists are evil and their posing as Antifa to provoke violence is evil, one tweet is not enough to condemn Trump and Barr for being blind to threat of white supremacists when even the Southern Poverty Law Center is reluctant to jump to the conclusion that they are infiltrating the peaceful protests to engage in wanton violence.
Here is a transcript for the June 2 show:
CNN
CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto
9:42 AM ET
POPPY HARLOW: Okay, a really important development in terms of all the talk you heard about Antifa, from the president, et cetera, and these protests, etcetera. Twitter overnight saying an account that called for violence and claimed to be part of Antifa was actually run by a group of well-known white supremacists.
JIM SCIUTTO: To be clear, the president, not just the president, but also the attorney general have been pinning all the violence, all the looting, on the far-left for days now. They continue to. CNN’s Donie O'Sullivan with us now. What we're seeing here is you have this coming from multiple directions, is that right?
DONIE O’SULLIVAN: Absolutely, Jim, yes. The president specifically has been calling out Antifa, which is a far-left group who have used violence in the past, even threatening on Sunday to label them a terrorist organization. So with that in mind, a tweet began circulating on Sunday, and I think we can bring it up on screen, that claimed to be from Antifa, the tweet read “alert, tonight’s the night, comrades. Tonight we say ‘F’ the city and we move into residential areas, the white hoods and take what's ours.” Now, Twitter now tells us that was not actually run by left-wing activists it was run by white nationalists. It is important to say that, you know this doesn't mean that Antifa is doing nothing here. But what this does confirm is suspicions that right-wingers are posing online as Antifa to inflame tensions.
HARLOW: Looks like we just lost Donie there, technology issue, it happens. We thank him for that reporting. You should read more about it, it is important what Twitter uncovered overnight.
