Montana Lawmaker Follows Trump's Lead, Moves to Designate Antifa as Domestic Terror Group
Republican state Rep. Braxton Mitchell of Montana has introduced a resolution to designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.
While there’s little evidence of antifa activities in Montana, Mitchell said early intervention is the best way to prevent the group from metastasizing into his state from Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, where the violent extremists have wreaked havoc for months.
Mitchell told Fox News that he has witnessed antifa’s alarming influence and numbers mushroom during the past few years, and he wants to stem that before the radical group’s rioting spreads even further.
“I just don’t want to go into a future where [political violence] becomes the norm, and I hope as a country, we can start moving away from political violence on both sides,” the 20-year-old Republican said.
Critics have slammed his resolution as a waste of time because antifa is not a major problem in Montana — yet.
John Driscoll, a former Democratic state legislator, called the measure “a wasteful distraction,” according to The Associated Press.
However, Mitchell said it’s better to prevent antifa’s insidious infestation before it takes hold rather than try to contain the group’s vandalism, arson and rioting after they occur.
“We’re just trying to send a message as a state,” the freshman state legislator said.
Mitchell said he hopes not only that his resolution will deter antifa from invading Montana, but also that President Joe Biden and Congress will consider designating the group as a domestic terrorist organization.
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Mitchell told Fox News that he has received overwhelming support for the resolution from his constituents.
He said he received more than 10,000 phone calls and emails on one night alone from enthusiastic Montanans who support his measure.
However, some state Democrats refused to support Mitchell’s resolution unless it included organizations that protested on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6.
Mitchell said his bill specifically targets antifa because of its pervasive pattern of violence.
Last May, then-President Donald Trump tweeted that “the United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.”
Liberal groups said Trump could not do so because the “terrorist” designation applies only to foreign organizations, not domestic groups.
“No current legal authority exists for designating domestic organizations as terrorist organizations. Any attempt at such a designation would raise significant First Amendment concerns.”@GeorgetownICAP’s Mary McCord: https://t.co/vhZTjM8IDD
— Georgetown Law ICAP (@GeorgetownICAP) June 1, 2020
Others argued that because antifa does not have a specific leader or centralized headquarters, it’s technically not an “organization.”
However, an undercover antifa operative said the group acts like a mini-corporation with a clearly defined hierarchy that gets lots of outside funding.
“With RCA [Rose City Antifa in Oregon], it seems structured, almost like a company — like a business,” the operative told Project Veritas last June.
Bail project organizer Holly Zoller, board member of Louisville’s “Books to Prisoners”, delivered riot equipment in a U-Haul ahead of tonight’s violence. pic.twitter.com/7RTh6Fu8JE
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 23, 2020
The operative confirmed that mob bullying and violence are antifa’s modus operandi.
In a shocking Project Veritas undercover video, an antifa leader admitted that the group is violent and warned its members to avoid getting caught in photos attacking people or vandalizing property because “we need to f—ing hide that s—.”
During a secret meeting, a group leader explained: “The whole goal of this thing is to get out there and do dangerous things as safely as possible.”
At another point, a group leader instructed new recruits on how to assault bystanders during their demonstrations.
“Practice things like an eye gouge,” he advised. “It takes very little pressure to injure someone’s eyes.”
Antifa has made no secret of its goal to destabilize the United States and usher in a socialist revolution.
The group foments terror among Americans through violence and emotional blackmail because scared people are easy to manipulate.
Biden has encouraged its mob violence, saying in a debate with Trump that antifa is only “an idea, not an organization.”
And his vice president, Kamala Harris, has urged people to bail left-wing rioters out of jail.
It is obvious that Americans cannot depend on this administration to protect them from enemies of the United States — foreign or domestic.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
