All language subtitles for Fringe.Nation.S01E01.1080p.WEB.h264-BAE

[ Protestors chanting ]

-All persons must
immediately leave the area.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

[ Gunshot ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Indistinct shouting ]

- Whose streets?
- Our streets!

-Whose streets?

- Our streets!
- Whose streets?

- Our streets!
- Whose streets?

-The killing of George Floyd
sparked protests

in the United States,
with millions of Americans

showing up against
police brutality.

In the weeks
after Floyd's death,

daytime demonstrations
turned to nighttime uprisings,

or looting and riots, depending
on who's telling the story.

According to President Trump,

there was one place
to lay the blame.

-The violence and vandalism
is being led by Antifa.

-Hardly a new phenomenon,

Trump and his surrogates
have pointed to an Antifa threat

since the protests and unrest
on his inauguration day in 2017.

-America is waking up
to the menace of Antifa.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

-Radical, leftist, Antifa thugs.

-I was walking on the street,
and this guy, like,

sucker-punched me
in the back of the head.

-Tonight, growing questions

about who may be
under those masks.

-There are no hard figures

as to how many people count
themselves members of Antifa.

-They've got clubs, and they've
got everything, Antifa!

-On May 31st, Trump announced
that he would list

Antifa as domestic terrorists,

but with no official leadership
or official organization,

even the the Department
of Justice

has struggled to identify
who or what Antifa is.

-Antifa can be best thought of,
I think, as a umbrella term

for what is essentially
a movement

comprised of loosely organized
groups around the country.

-In Portland, birthplace

of the modern
antifascist movement in the US,

the Trump administration
deployed federal agents

to suppress and, in some cases,
abduct protesters,

a move that led to escalating
tensions in the streets.

-What starts 2 months ago
as protests against

police brutality
has now become a nightly ritual.

-53 days, 7 1/2 weeks,

Portland, Oregon,
has been burning.

-And that made it a good place
to start to try to figure out

what this Antifa thing
is all about.

Most of the chaotic scenes
on the news

all come from a 2-block area

in front of
the Portland Justice Center.

-A lot of battles against
the right wing

have gone down right here.

This is our square.

- Who is the, "our"?
- The people.

-Okay.

-Anybody who opposes fascism
because they line up over there,

so when we face off,

this is where we face off
across the street from them.

-I see.

Luis Marquez has been a fixture

at leftist protests here
for years

and embraces the direct action
Trump has focused on

when characterizing
the Antifa threat.

And this is Homeland Security
right here?

-That's the Fed right there.

So... this is
the Justice Center.

The police like to...

Portland police
come out of here.

They'll put snipers up top,
right there.

These are gun ports that
the Portland Police

that are in here will open up
to shoot protesters.

- That's kind of... up.
- It's super... up.

-When it comes to antifascism
and the idea of Antifa,

some people really don't know
who the hell you guys are

and what it is that you do
or even if you do exist.

-You're using this word,
"you," right?

So antifascism is a philosophy.

Right?

So there is no, say,
national Antifa group.

Right?
There are a bunch of friends

that identify with this
philosophy of no fascism,

of everybody being free,

of people being equal,
of rights being upheld.

-So then if you subscribe
to the philosophy,

then you are Antifa?
- Yes.

-So then you would be Antifa?

-Sure, okay,
but I belong to no group.

Right?
So it makes sense... No...

-But you see how confusing
this shit can be, right?

-Well, yeah, but it's like
being a Christian

but just, like, not belonging
to a church, so...

-But then you are
a Christian, still.

-All right.
Yeah, okay.

-So you... So for the sake of
this interview, you're Antifa.

-There we go. All right.
There we go, boom.

-So as an antifascist,

you say that, you know,

you all play a protective role.

Specifically, you have played
a protective role.

- Yes, sir.
- In what way?

-I have not allowed Proud Boys,
neofascists, nativists or Nazis

to come into our crowds, period.

- And have they refused?
- Some.

-And then what?

What does that mean?
[ Laughs ]

-We dance.

- You dance a little bit?
- We talk.

We have a rap battle.
It's all spoken word.

-Well, now you are directly
fighting the state

on these grounds where,

you know,
federal troopers are here,

and you guys
are confronting them.

-Fascism has to be confronted
wherever you find it,

whether it's some
stupid mother[bleep]

rocking the Confederate battle
flag or federal troops.

Fascism is fascism.

-Okay, somebody understands
fascism,

and they're like,
"Yeah, I'm against that."

- Mm-hmm.
- "But wait a minute,

this dude is going around
slapping Nazis in the face.

I don't know if that's me."

-Antifascism is broad.

You don't have to do what I do
to be antifascist.

You have to say,
"Hey, not accepting the people

for who they are,
not giving them

the opportunities that another
group has,

that's fascist."

And if you are against those
things, then you're antifascist.

-Luis sees racism
and structural injustice

underneath the broad umbrella
of fascism in America.

Like him, many we spoke
to were reluctant to identify

under a single banner of Antifa,

making it hard to associate
any individual's actions

to an official group.

Meanwhile, the Trump
administration

has consistently described

a coordinated
onslaught of violence.

We spoke to historian Mark Bray
to set the record straight.

So I am kind of on a journey

to figure out who
or what Antifa is.

-Great, well, you came
to the right place.

- That's what I'm saying.
- Yeah.

-And you being the author
of "The Handbook,"

I just got to ask,
is Antifa even real?

-Yeah.
Yeah, it is, but not in the way

that Donald Trump says it is,
so Antifa is short

for antifascist in a bunch
of different languages,

and it's not one specific
group or organization

with a headquarters or a CEO.

If you do the kinds of
activities or organize a group

that basically aims to shut down
the far right

in one way or another,
you're basically Antifa.

The history of antifascism
in general goes back 100 years.

People are generally more
familiar with opposition

to Hitler and Mussolini.

What people know less about
is how after World War II,

the question became,
how to make sure

that you don't get
another holocaust

or another Mussolini in power.

A great example is Britain,
where right after the war ends,

Oswald Mosley, who organized
the British Union of Fascists

in the 1930s,
gets out of prison.

He starts a new movement.

Doesn't call it fascist,
but it is fascist,

and it's really anti-Semitic.

So this group of Jewish
World War II veterans,

which calls themselves
the 43 Group, says,

"We're not going to let this
happen at home

after we fought the Nazis."

So they just organized
to physically disrupt

these fascist,
anti-Semitic meetings,

and they're successful.

In a couple of years,
Mosley's movement falls apart.

-When you say,
"physically disrupt,"

what are we doing?"

-They would beat the crap
out of the fascists.

These were guys who...
- They're the real deal.

-They saw their people
almost exterminated.

-Take that model
and fast-forward to 2020.

Like, I've seen videos of, like,

Antifa folks going around
punching Nazis in the face.

I mean, it seems like that
would be personally cathartic,

but is it good for the movement?

-That's the interesting debate
over the last few years, is,

"Does physical confrontation
with the far right help them

or hurt them,
or is it irrelevant?"

Right?
And I think that on its own,

if that were all that
these folks were doing,

that would be insufficient

and not necessarily
all that important,

but I think if you look
at the history,

you can see that
the overall goal is to make it

so that being a Nazi
or being a fascist

is personally, economically
and socially untenable.

Physical confrontation
is part of the repertoire,

but it's not the most
commonly used tactic.

More often, Antifa groups will
succeed by doxing the far right,

exposing who they are,
getting them fired.

It's this notion that we don't
let them have the streets.

We don't let them normalize
their politics.

No matter the size, they need to
be stopped as soon as possible.

-This summer, antifascists
turned their tactics

for combatting the far right

towards openly
combatting the US government.

When the federal crackdown
in Portland happened,

it galvanized the city.

Two months in, what were
becoming dwindling protests

turned into growing
nightly gatherings

bringing all sorts of folks
into the fray.

-No justice, no peace!

Take it to the streets
to fuck the police.

No justice, no peace!
- So here are the protests.

There's a lot of Black Lives
Matter chants

because that's what
this protest is about.

I'm sure that Antifa is here.

I mean, most of these people
are antifascists,

I would think,
but in terms of, like,

the formal Antifa folks,
I don't know where they are.

-Let's go!

-So the moms can be right here
where they want to be.

-Let's go, all the moms!

[ Indistinct shouting ]

-Portland, we got work to do.

[ Cheers and applause ]

We will revolutionize what
community safety looks like.

[ Cheers and applause ]

We will not fail.
- No!

-We will not fail.
[ Cheers and applause ]

-We will not fail.
We will not fail.

-When this shit gets wild,
you got my back?

[ Indistinct shouting ]

-I said, who's got my back?

-I got your back!

-Black Lives Matter!

-When you see white folks in all
black throwing water bottles

over the barricade
at federal troops,

do you feel like that takes away

from the focus
of Black Lives Matter?

-No. There's four levels
when it comes to protesting,

and one of those levels
is rioting,

so there has to be
some form of violence,

but when there's no narrative
to go with that,

then that's the problem.

-If you think antifascism
is terrorism,

that's exactly
what fascists fuck do.

That's exactly
what fucking Hitler did.

He fucking quelled
all that fucking rage.

He got rid of all the
politicians that opposed him.

The... is Trump
doing right now?

I got...
I got all the plates on.

I got... You know,
we both got plates on.

We're ready to go.
We're defending ourselves.

-Yeah, I'm dressed in black and
armored up and stuff right now,

but, you know, I'm not part
of "Antifa" or whatever.

-What would you say Antifa is?

-I would say that Antifa is,
in large part,

a right-wing boogeyman
at this point.

-Where's Antifa?

-Everywhere, brah.

Everyone here is antifascist.

Do you hear...
That's the cops, yeah?

Get your mask.

That's the cops.
- All right.

If he says the feds
are pulling up with tear gas,

I believe him,
so I'm about to put my mask on.

-I mean, what we heard
was we heard

the police announce to disperse.
- Okay.

-Everything generally comes
right after that.

- Right.
- All right? So...

-Night after night in Portland,
this has been the pattern.

The marches and speeches end,
and the chaos begins.

Luis took us to the front.

♪♪

- No justice!
- No peace!

-No justice!

- No peace!
- No j... [ Coughs ]

-No peace!

-No peace!

-Right now...

there's tear gas in the air,

and federal troops.

I want to jiggle back,

and Luis is going straight
to the front!

-No justice! No peace!

[ Rhythmic banging ]

-Damn! Ugh!

-Shit!

[ Explosion ]

-This is
the Federal Protective Service.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

-I was there when it
was people chanting

and giving speeches peacefully,

and, bro, in a matter of 10 to
15 minutes, it turned to bedlam.

-Nothing changed.

Nothing changed,
except for the pigs.

I told you.
I was like, "Get your mask on."

Y'all was like, "What?"

It's like, it's about to happen.

-So what's next?

-Tonight?

-Yeah.

-We go back.

- Shit.
- Let's go.

- You hear that?
- We're having an issue.

-You hear that?
It's back on.

We just got out of it!

We going back in.
What'd you say?

-These are an interesting time
of asking questions, man.

Like, "Where are the cops?"
We get shot.

"What's next?" There's a boom.

-[ Laughs ]

♪♪

♪♪

-Another day.

-Another day, ready to go
make our voices heard.

How you doing?
- My knee hurts.

- I'm bruised up on the side.
- Oh, did you... You got got?

-Yeah, I got a couple shots.

When you did!
- Oh.

-I got hit, and then I saw
that flashbang

and I got hit
in the side of the head.

-Yeah, I remember that.
I remember that.

-So you want to see something?

-I don't know.
What you got for me to see?

-I got something.

So...

-This dude...
This dude is full of surprises.

[ Metal clanking ]

Bro, what the...

-This is what they've been
using to shoot us.

- What are these, souvenirs?
- Yeah.

These are CS cannisters.

These are the cannisters
that shoot us.

This is chain-ball CS.

You can feel the pellets
in that.

Right, that's this one.

-Wait... Oh, that's what...

This is what I got shot
with last night?

-Yeah, yeah.
Let me show you one last thing.

-What is this?

The dude got a museum
of the protests.

Bro, man, what?
- That's a live grenade.

-Man, put that shit back
in the car, man

- That's what...
- See, I'm cool with these

because they've been used
already, but you...

I'm not even
going to touch that.

-That's what these are
right there, right. You see?

And then they pull the pin,
throw them, and it breaks apart.

That's what they're deploying on
United States citizens

that are out there saying
Black lives matter.

-What I witnessed
last night was crazy.

- It's insane.
- Yeah.

-Now, it started off

as a peaceful protest
led by Black folks...

- Mm-hmm.
- Leading chants

of "Black Lives Matter."

Then it turned into mofos trying
to breakdown the barricade

at the federal building, right?

- Mm-hmm.
- And they didn't come out

until you guys were out
there provoking them.

It's like... It's almost like
you guys are feeding each other

because you don't want
the troops here,

so you go fight them.

When you go fight them,
Trump says,

"This is the reason
why the troops are there,

because you guys
are fighting them."

And in that tit-for-tat,
this cat-and-mouse game

between you guys
and the federal troops,

folks over there
at Black Lives Matter are like,

"Yo, we still here, homie.

What you guys doing
ain't about us."

-I hear that.

I, too,
am a person of color, right.

I don't tell you how to fight.

Don't tell me how to fight.

Right.

We're all working
towards the same goal.

- Mm-hmm.
- Right?

Different streams, different
rivers all go to the same ocean.

They're all necessary,
all tactics,

but if you want to look
at the timeline of Portland,

we were wrapping up.

We were ready to go home.

We're not the ones
that sent the feds here,

snatching people
off the street, citizens.

That's what made people
come back out.

-Mm-hmm.

-That's what brought
your moms out.

That's what brought
your veterans out.

-Can we talk just, like,
candidly about last night, bro?

-Sure.

-At one point you were
anticipating the federal troops

were getting ready
to fire on us again,

and you and some other folks
were just dancing.

- Yeah.
- As if you were excited.

-Yeah.

Look, I mean, this is
a... bullet, bro.

You know those guns
that you saw yesterday?

-Yes, bro. This...

-That's what they put
in that shot you.

That don't make you mad?

-Yeah, it makes me
a little pissed, bro.

-If we go home, we say it's okay
to do this shit.

If you get shot with this
and you're like,

"Okay, I give up,"

what do you think the next time
they're going to do?

And the time after that?
And the time after that?

You have to.

Am I nervous when we know
they're going to rush?

Yup, and do I have
that energy and do I...

Is that why I bounce?

Yup, but what else do you do
before you potentially die?

Why not dance?

Because what do
I have compared to this?

What do I have compared
to any of this?

Nothing.

-Not all antifascists
are the same.

Luis embodies the direct-action
strategy known as black bloc,

geared mostly towards
physical confrontation

and the stereotypical
black uniforms,

but many choose
to participate in other ways.

PopMob is a group
of Portland activists

pushing a different aesthetic.

- "Every day, any fascist,"
is kind of,

like, our catchphrase

because we're trying
to encourage people

to see beyond just,
like, this one stereotype

about what
an antifascist looks like.

Anybody could be
an antifascist...

Parents, schoolteachers,

food-service workers,
healthcare workers.

We are your neighbors.

We are the people sitting next
to you on the bus.

We are all over the place,
and we are everybody.

Like, we're just normal people,
and that most of our time

is spent doing things
like having meetings.

Like, oh, my god,
so many meetings.

I spend hours of my life
in meetings,

and that is the work
that is so invisibilized.

-So what about, like, the...

You know, the folks that are
in the organization

that are a bit more moderate,

that look at the direct-action
strategic folks,

and they're like,
"Do you have to, like,

slap these white
supremacists in the face?

Do you have to always fight?

Like, that's not doing
the movement any good."

-Actually, that is the kind
of perception

that we are actively trying
to push against.

It is a tactic of the state
to do things like that,

to perpetuate that

good-protester/bad-protester
narrative

as a way to disrupt
thriving movements

because we are a threat
to their power,

and so by perpetuating
that rhetoric

and, like, pitting us
against each other,

then it takes
the focus off of them,

and then the infighting
takes the energy away

from working together

to fight towards the things
that we actually want.

They all fall under an umbrella,
which we often talk about,

like diversity of tactics.
- Mm-hmm.

-That black bloc
is our front lines,

and they are our community
defense and they protect us,

and we are safe coming out here
because they are there,

and that is a narrative
that's never communicated.

-Why do you think there's
so much confusion

and misunderstanding

as to what Antifa is
and how you guys operate?

-I think that up until
a couple years ago,

a lot of people had never
heard the term Antifa.

- Right.
- And so their first exposure

to it has been through
what they saw on the news,

and what they've seen on TV

and what they've seen
on the Internet,

which started with a lot
of these counterprotests

of these far-right groups
that were springing up

after the election,
and even before the election,

and so that dichotomy
and that conflict

was basically born
out of the news coverage,

and the news coverage
was overwhelmingly

footage of, like,
fights and violence.

I often say that like 98%
of what we do

doesn't even happen
in the streets.

-All right.
I should be good to go.

-Emily Gorcenski is an activist

whose antifascist work increased

after the 2017 Unite the Right
rally

where she lived
in Charlottesville.

With her Internet
sleuthing skills,

she started doxing
white nationalists.

Basically, she identifies
racists at these rallies

and publicly puts them on blast
for the world to see.

-Myself and other
antifascist activists

have exposed
middle-school teachers.

We have exposed civil servants.

We've exposed people
in government.

We've exposed people
that work at restaurants, right.

These are people that you will
encounter on a day-to-day basis.

-How many is it of you guys
doing this kind of work?

-You know,
there's no official network.

We're not colluding with anyone.
We're not coordinating.

I look at things
that affect my life.

I look at people
who came to Charlottesville.

- Whose streets?
- Our streets!

-Whose streets?

- Our streets!
- Whose streets?

- Our streets!
- Whoo!

-When the Unite the Right
rally was being organized,

most of this planning
was being done over Discord,

which is a sort of chat service
that's popular among gamers,

and so all of these
planning chats were exposed.

And one of these characters
was this guy

that called himself Tyrone,

but what's interesting about
Tyrone is that he was asking,

"Was it okay in Virginia
to hit people with your car

if they're standing
in the street?"

And so that put him on my radar,

and so I read through
all of these chats.

There is one message
that stuck out,

so this image here was unique,

so I went here and just did
a Google search for this image.

So when you look for this image,

you get all of these
news stories,

and one of them that comes up
is that these US Marines

are arrested
at a Confederate rally,

Joseph Warner Manning
and Michael Joseph Chesny.

So I do some looking into
Michael Joseph Chesny,

and so now we have
a name and a face,

but I don't know that
this is who Tyrone is,

so I do a little bit
more digging to figure out

what is Tyrone all about.

So he posts this message

about reversing white genocide
two at a time.

It's a baby announcement and it
looks like they're having twins,

and then I look
a little bit more closely

and I sort of notice
his hairline,

and then I look at this guy,
and it's like, okay, well,

that's not proof
in and of itself,

but it's pretty damn close.

So, you know,
I pop over to Twitter,

and, sure enough,
he's got four daughters,

and okay, here is his wife,
so I go to the Facebook,

and it says how
she's having twins

and she's got four kids and,
you know, all of this stuff.

And so now I'm thinking,
"Okay, now we've got Tyrone."

And, you know, here he is.

He's a United States Marine
with explosives training.

-Emily posted her work
uncovering Chesny's identity

on Twitter,
and included the receipts.

Weeks later, he was officially
discharged from the Marines.

What do you say to the folks
that are like,

"Look, I'm just a white dude
that's proud of my race.

I go to a rally.
Is that a crime?"

-You know, if you're proud
of your heritage, good for you.

That's your business.

I don't think that a lot
of these guys are,

per se, violent actors.

It's maybe the 1%,

but those 1% are propped
up by the other 99%,

and that's why we can't allow
that to be, you know, unchecked.

-Antifascists are fighting
what they consider

to be fascism on many fronts.

They see an authoritarian
presence

in the White House
suppressing our position

by sending federal troops
to Portland,

and from the same seat
of leadership

comes a stoking of racist flames

by not only refusing
to acknowledge

the increasing threat
of white nationalism,

but going so far as to say

that there are good people
on both sides.

The side of white nationalism
in the South cherishes

their Confederate monuments,
which became a flash point

between the far right
and antifascists this summer.

-New at 11, a CBS 46 exclusive.

And this weekend, protesters
and counterprotesters

are schedule to descend
upon Stone Mountain Park.

-At least 2,000 militia members

are set to storm
Stone Mountain Saturday.

-At nine stories tall,
Stone Mountain

is the largest monument
to the Confederacy,

and in the past, it's been
a meeting spot for the Klan.

-To protect the Black nation!

-On July 4th, it was the site

of an armed March
by an all-Black militia,

prompting a counter-rally
in August

made up of antigovernment
militias

like the Three Percenters

and right-wing groups
like American Patriot USA,

led by known white supremacist

and former Klan leader
Chester Doles.

Monica Johnson works with
F.L.O.W.E.R.,

a coalition
of antiracist groups,

including Atlanta Antifascists

that tracks and disrupts
white-supremacist rallies.

-We're planning to hopefully
outnumber the racists

and show that Georgia
isn't this place

where they could
just come unopposed,

and march on public space

and kind of instill fear
in various communities,

so we're there to outnumber
to show that there is a...

There's a different tide.

- So you in the streets?
- Yeah, I guess.

- You're a fighter.
- "Alleged," yeah.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Would you call yourself Antifa?

-No, because I don't think
it's really real.

I don't think there's
many people

that would call themselves
Antifa

unless they're being
a little ironic.

-So why do you think folks
that are doing antifascist work

like yourself just do not want
to be associated

with this title, "Antifa"?

-Well, it's really
just a boogeyman.

It's not something that
describes the vast majority

of people doing work
for a sustained amount of time.

Antifa is this thing
kind of conjured up,

and the ideas of many
reactionaries or right-wingers,

of people who just want
to go and destroy,

and so that doesn't describe me.

-The call to defend the monument
went out across social media,

and thousands responded online,
but when the time came,

only a handful of
armed supporters showed up,

compared to over
150 counterprotesters

and antifascists.

On top of that,

the local authorities
denied them their permit,

so the demonstrations took place
outside the park entirely.

[ Indistinct talking ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Hell yeah!

-Five years ago,

we made a strikeout
against Stone Mountain,

and it was a little bit lonely.

I'm not lonely anymore.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-I got friends!

I got friends.
Let us stay together.

-Over 30 different groups

signed on to the F.L.O.W.E.R.
coalition

and what they call the Unite
Against Hate counter-rally.

Atlanta's NAACP chapter
was one of the partners

and has been advocating
for the removal

of Confederate
monuments for years.

-When you pass that mountain
and you see that

and you know what it stands for,

if you have one Dylann Roof

come from visiting that
mountain, it's one too many.

-It didn't take long
for the counterprotesters

to directly confront
the armed militia members.

- You're a traitor.
- Stand here with a traitor...

-You wouldn't tell a man that!

Because you better not level
off the streets

and run into a Vietnam vet

because they all
are going to see you!

You walk where I tell you!

-You ain't talking, traitor.

No, you're going to listen
to a veteran, traitor.

You're going to listen
to somebody that actually

fought for this country.

-You don't talk to me
anytime you want to, fool.

-You don't talk that way
with me again!

Because I will beat your
fucking ass, and you know it.

You know it!

-When this rally started, there
were about 15 white nationalists

about 10 feet behind me,

and they were
standing there growling,

but right now,
the counter-rally protesters

are not respecting their space
at all, as you can see.

-Go home!

Go home, racists!
Go home!

Go home, racists! Go home!

Go home, racists!
Go home!

Go home, racists! Go home!

-Take your ass out!
Take your ass out!

Take your ass out!

-It seems that you guys have
a much more

overwhelming force than they do.

Do you think that's indicative
of how the country

is going in terms of suppressing
that sort of ideology?

-You know, I think about this
all the time,

and it's pretty obvious here.

Like, they've got the guns,

but we've got the numbers
and, like, literally guns.

-I mean, you guys
have got some guns, too.

-We got some guns, too.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

-Do you consider what you guys
are doing here to be part of,

like, Antifa and antifascism?

-I think more people
are not joining groups,

and not saying like, "Oh,
I'm joining this one group."

Everybody is more disseminated,

and I think that's scarier
for fascists.

-Black Lives Matter!

-After pushing the initial group
back,

the counterprotesters marched
through the town

as a show of force,
leading to more confrontations.

- No fascists here!
- No fascists here!

[ Indistinct chanting ]

- Go home!
- I'm at home!

I'm at home! I'm at home!
Woo!

[ Indistinct shouting ]

-That... took my hat!

He took my fricking hat!
He took my fricking hat!

[ Indistinct shouting ]

-As antifascist protests
escalated across the country,

Republican lawmakers
and the Trump administration

deflected a conversation
about systematic racism

by focusing on violence
and destruction

they associated with Antifa.

-Tell that to the people
of Portland who've seen Antifa

for 53 days, rioting, looting,

stealing, destroying property.

-One of the loudest refrains

came from Ohio
Republican Jim Jordan,

ranking member
on the judiciary committee

and one of Trump's
biggest cheerleaders

pushing for law and order.

-You've said on occasion
that Antifa

is a terrorist organization.

Do you believe that?

-I think that's
an appropriate term,

and so, again, it was first

used by the president
of the United States.

The Attorney General called them
terrorists,

radical, violent, extremist.

That's pretty strong language

from the chief law enforcement
officer of our country.

-What should citizens do

when they vehemently disagree
with the law?

-Shouldn't be violence.

-What should they do?

-Participate in the system,
the greatest system ever!

-What happens when that system
doesn't work for Black, brown

and gay people or trans people?

-I just disagree
with that premise.

-But, Congressman...

Black men continue to get
killed by police officers.

Transgender folks continue

to get killed
disproportionately, right?

And writing letters,
calling your congressman,

that's the way
it's supposed to work,

but when people that protest...

If they kneel,
they're told that that's wrong.

If they protest in the streets
peacefully,

they're told that they're wrong,

and they may get snatched up
by the police.

- No.
- No, no, no, no, no, no.

-Hold on, my wife and I,
our family,

we've engaged
in peaceful protests.

We've been to pro-life rallies,
pro-life marches.

- Congressman...
- No one ever got violent there!

- Congressman, you are...
- We've been involved,

so that's
how it's supposed to work.

-But "supposed to,"
is the key phrase there.

I'll ask you this.

Samuel Adams, John Hancock,

Paul Revere...

patriots or anarchists?

-Patriots.

-The Boston Massacre
was violent.

There were sentries on guard,
right, that night,

before the Boston Massacre,

and there were
the Sons of Liberty

right there in front of them,

who did not want their presence
here in the colonies.

-So now you're equating Antifa
to the Sons of Liberty?

Are you kidding me?

They were taxed
without representation.

They couldn't vote for
their person in Parliament.

That's completely different
than what we have in America!

-So absolutely,
it's completely different.

- So you've got to be kidding me!
- They fought because of taxes.

People that are fighting
on this front are fighting

because Black people
are getting killed at the hands

of the police unjustly.

-And when those terrible
tragedies happen,

they should be held accountable,
exactly what has...

-Should be! Should be!

-You don't think the police
officer in Minneapolis

is going to be held accountable?

Holy cow, of course he is,
and he deserves it.

-What of the police officers
that ran

into Breonna Taylor's house and
shot her while she was asleep?

What are they doing right now?

-Well, there's going to be...

This is how it works in America.

You have a trial by your peer,
a jury of your peers.

You have a trial.
There's evidence presented.

That's how it works.
- Congressman, it's been months.

The woman was asleep
in her house!

-So going out in the streets and
beating up someone else is okay?

-Who is beating up who?

-Again, look at what's happening
in Portland!

So that's okay?
- And that's Antifa?

-I don't know, but it might be.
I don't know!

-You don't know, but you're...

Why do you say it's Antifa
if you don't know?

-Well, you don't know
that it isn't.

-What is Antifa to you?

-I would say it's maybe the...

this...

the most dangerous
cancel-culture entity out there

because when you see
the violence that's associated

with it,
that is really intimidating

and I think will lead
to silencing of points of view,

and so that's what scares me
most about Antifa.

-Would you say that you
are against fascism?

-Yeah, I'm for freedom.

I mean, I love
this great country.

I'm for the First Amendment.

I'm for equal treatment.
You got...

You've got some basic liberties
in the First Amendment,

your right to practice
your faith,

your right to peaceably
assemble peaceably.

That's the way it's supposed
to work in this country,

not what's happening
in our cities today.

-We've been on a journey trying
to understand what Antifa is,

who they are and what they do.

We've spoken to a lot of people
who do antifascist work,

but they don't really
consider themselves

to be "Antifa,"

but one thing is for sure:

They're frustrated
with systemic injustice,

homophobia,
xenophobia and racism,

and they put this all
underneath an umbrella

that they call fascism,

but we're here
on the Hill right now,

and there seems to be
a different narrative.

There are Republican congressmen

who refuse to acknowledge that
these injustices are fascism,

but what's crazy is,

these two parties are talking
past each other

in a way that they don't
even understand what it is

that they're arguing about.

The rhetorical battle
over Antifa

continues to spill out
into the streets,

and political violence
is escalating.

During protests in late August

after another police shooting

left Kenosha, Wisconsin,
resident Jacob Blake

fighting for his life,

an armed 17-year-old
counterprotester killed

two demonstrators
and injured a third.

Four days later, a Trump-
supporting counterprotester

in Portland was shot and killed

by a man who referred to himself
as "100% Antifa."

And in early September,
a whistleblower complaint from

within the Department
of Homeland Security

claimed that Trump's
appointed leadership

had asked intelligence analysts
to downplay

the domestic terrorist threat
of white supremacists

and play up the threat
from Antifa

and left-wing groups to match

with the president's
talking points.

Are we currently living
in a fascist state?

-I don't think that we are
at the point yet

where we actually have
a textbook fascist society,

but all of the kinds
of prerequisites

for getting there exist.

-It's hard for anybody, like,
to stand back

and say that this isn't
authoritarianism.

How can it not be?

And I feel like we've gotten
so desensitized

to how completely bananas
things have gotten

over the last 4 years,

that nothing even
shocks us anymore.

The upcoming election
will decide

if Trump gets another 4 years
in the White House,

but with
the unprecedented demonstrations

witnessed this year,

many Americans
may begin sounding

more like these antifascists,

capital-A Antifa optional.

-Children in camps, people being
murdered by the police,

a lack of education,
a lack of food,

a lack of opportunity,
a lack of employment.

Those days of singing,
"We shall overcome.

Our day is coming tomorrow"?

Fuck that.

We're going backwards.

[ Crowd chanting ]
- Our streets!

Our streets! Our streets!

Our streets!