The Homeland Security Secretary Equates Anti-Fascist Activists to Mara Salvatrucha, Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic State
At a White House policy meeting, Kristi Noem on Wednesday likened antifa to MS-13, the Gaza-based organization, Hezbollah and ISIS, calling the decentralized protesters “equally threatening” as designated terrorist organizations.
“They operate with the same complexity as MS-13, as TDA [Tren de Aragua], as Isis, as the Lebanese militia, as the Palestinian faction, each one of these, they are just as dangerous,” Noem said. “They have an agenda to destroy us, similar to other extremist groups we have confronted for many, many years.”
The roundtable included conservative online reporters including Andy Ngo, Nick Sortor, Katie Daviscourt among others who report on anti-fascist demonstrations.
Some of the groups Noem cited – Hamas, Hezbollah and Isis – are officially classified as terror groups that hold land, run armed branches, have hierarchical leadership and have carried out large-scale assaults such as bombings, abductions and targeted killings.
Specialists in radical movements have long described antifa, in comparison, as having no centralized leadership, official membership or organizational structure, and it has often been portrayed by federal law enforcement as a loose network of campaigners who participate in demonstrations, portions of which involve damage to belongings and street violence.
This meeting comes after an executive order signed in September classifying antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization”.
Shortly prior to the declaration, a Proud Boys leader previously convicted and later pardoned for his role on January 6 wrote on social media: “Who’s ready to go ANTIFA hunting? Since I am acquainted with several individuals.”
