“Antifa and professional anarchists are invading our communities, staging bricks and weapons to instigate violence. These are acts of domestic terror. The victims are peaceful protesters, the residents of these communities and the brave law enforcement standing watch.”
— The White House, in a tweet, June 3, 2020
From the Rose Garden on June 1, President Trump warned that the voices of “peaceful protesters” against the killing of George Floyd, an African American man, in Minneapolis by police have been drowned out by “professional anarchists, violent mobs, or, arsonists, looters, criminals, rider rioters, Antifa and others.”
Two days later, the White House tweeted (and then later deleted) a 58-second video that appeared to offer evidence to support this claim. The video, which gained more than one million views in the less than three hours it was online, purported to show “Antifa and professional anarchists … staging bricks” for future nefarious use.
Yet a closer examination of the video tells a different story. Continue reading.