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As liberal pundits and networks across the country downplay the rise of violence carried out by Antifa, a journalist who has covered the domestic terrorist designated group extensively pushed back on that narrative in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Social media has been littered with posts in recent weeks featuring elected officials and pundits dismissing concerns about Antifa violence as simply an “ideology” rather than an organized effort, which Ngo argues is a message driven by tacit support of the cause.
“It is an ideology, but Neo-Nazis organize around an ideology, jihadists organize around an ideology, so what’s your point really? The point you’re really trying to do, when people bring that up, is to run cover for Antifa because these people on the left know that organized militant Antifa networks themselves and individuals operate as shock troops for their cause.”
“They have the same enemies, they want the same outcomes in terms of the institutions destroyed and they want the political opposition intimidated into silence and disengaging from the political process.”
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Ngo went on by explaining that individuals who doubt the existence of Antifa networks should watch the footage that he and other independent journalists have published.
“I would show them the video from June 2019 when people working in an organized manner beat me with their faces covered, having weapons, and escaped,” Ngo said. “Nobody was ever arrested for that. If that’s not convincing enough, I would tell them to watch the shooting video of the assassination of Aaron Danielson in Portland in 2020, a Trump supporter who was killed by somebody who actually left behind a manifesto. If you don’t believe the video, you can read his manifesto. He describes himself, I am 100% Antifa.”
President Trump, who issued an executive order last month declaring Antifa a domestic terrorist organization, hosted a roundtable at the White House on Wednesday where Ngo, and other prominent independent journalists, spoke to the president about the violence they have seen and experienced first hand.
Antifa is a far-left militant movement that describes itself as antifascist. It has been accused of organizing or encouraging violent riots, notably during the 2020 “defund the police” protests and, more recently, in attacks targeting federal immigration facilities.
Ngo said his biggest takeaway from that event with Trump was the recognition of the dangerous work journalists have done covering Antifa violence in recent years with little to no support from mainstream outlets or elected officials.
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“I’ve been reporting on Antifa now for about nine years, and for some of that time it did feel like I was reporting on something that nobody who could do something about it would listen,” Ngo told Fox News Digital. “And there was a lot of despair through that time. I saw a lot violence, saw death, and I suffered violence myself. I feel optimistic now. I think Antifa’s a confusing topic and subject, and I’m thankful that I have the expertise to be able to share that with the administration.”
Ngo told Fox News Digital he carries “so much gratitude to the president” for holding the event, saying, “They have a million things to do. There’s a lot of important things on the world stage. Yet, nearly two hours is dedicated on this topic. So I don’t take any of it for granted, and I’m just thankful to have been able to be there.”
Ngo also told Fox News Digital the event was “bittersweet” for him personally due to losing his father earlier this year.
“I wish he had been around to see that,” Ngo said. “My parents were refugees of communism from Vietnam. I don’t know how they would take it if they knew the full extent of far-left militancy in America and that they raised a son who’s put himself at a lot of risk to try to expose it. So I wish my father was there to share in that moment.”
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Ngo’s family history living under communism is relevant in the conversation today regarding Antifa, the Portland-born journalist told Fox Digital, given the underlying communist beliefs espoused by radical left movements in the United States today..
“For a century now, communists and anarchists, particularly in Europe, have engaged in violent acts that have sparked revolutions and the Antifa today look to those historical examples in the acts of violence they carry out,” Ngo said, adding that many “normal” and mainstream liberals in the country are confused by the “deception and misinformation” in the media regarding Antifa.
“If you read the mainstream, one can leave with the impression that these are people who are opposed just to fascism and racism. So why not come on board with that, right?” Ngo explained. “When really the ideology is anarchist communism and violent anarchist-communism a lot of them engage in violence for the purpose of nihilistic violence. They want to see things burnt down. Their own slogan has become ungovernable. So if you care about democracy, liberal democracy in institutions, civil rights…you should not. You cannot be anywhere on the side of advocating or running cover for these so-called Antifa.”
Ngo went on to say that Antifa messaging and ideology is becoming more and more “mainstream” with the evidence for that being the “depraved worldview philosophy” that has given rise to those who celebrated the assassinations of Charlie Kirk, United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and those who “call for myself and others to be assassinated.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem slammed Antifa during the Wednesday roundtable arguing that the network is “just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TdA, as ISIS, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them.”
She said that authorities recently arrested the girlfriend of the founder of Antifa in Portland, and that investigators are trying to garner more information from her about the network of newly-labeled “domestic terrorists” during their prosecution.
Noem said the administration’s explicit goal is to “eliminate [Antifa] from the existence of American society.”
“These individuals do not just want to threaten our law enforcement officers, threaten our journalists and the citizens of this country. They want to kill them,” Noem said.
Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.
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