The call comes on the heels of an assault on independent journalist Andy Ngo in Portland, Ore., earlier this month by Antifa associates, as well as an attack against an ICE facility in Tacoma, Wash., by a self-described Antifa follower who was armed with Molotov cocktails and an AR-15 rifle.
Cruz brought up the designation during questioning of FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Let me turn to a final topic, which is an area of concern for me, which is a group that has called itself Antifa, which ironically is short for anti fascism, and yet they engage in the conduct of fascists,” said Cruz.
“They engage in violent protests, masked men and women engaging in physical violence. We saw recently the Rose City chapter of Antifa in Portland Oregon that was assaulting citizens and disrupting traffic, violently assaulted one journalist so severely that he was hospitalized for brain hemorrhage,” the Texas senator continued before bringing up the Tacoma attack, which – of course – the garbage “mainstream” media has all but ignored because they serve as enablers of Antifa violence. (Related: “End Domestic Terrorism” event organizer Joe Biggs calls out Big Tech for allowing Antifa, far-Left to encourage more attacks like the one on Tacoma ICE facility.)
“I am concerned that these are not isolated incidents but rather this is a pattern, an organization that is engaged in masked, anonymous, violent terrorism. To what extent is the FBI concerned about the threat of violent activity from an organization like Antifa?”
Let the investigations begin
For some reason, Wray sought to minimize Cruz’s concerns to an extent.
“We are absolutely concerned about violence committed on behalf of any ideology, any extremism,” he said. “The key is though, the FBI does not investigate ideology, we investigate violent criminal activity, and if it’s fueled by some ideology, then that’s how it gets wrapped into our mandate.”
Well, sure, okay. But that’s what Cruz was talking about; Antifa violence. And anyway, even Obama’s FBI and Department of Homeland Security were close to designating Antifa a domestic terrorist group, as Politico reported in 2017.
Cruz went on to inform Wray that he would be requesting the department launch a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) investigation into the origins and functions of Antifa; RICO is a statute originally written to combat organized crime but which has also been applied to other gang-related criminal activity.
That absolutely should happen. In fact, as The National Sentinel reports, politicians and some law enforcement officials have been calling on the administration to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist group for months.
But there also needs to be a RICO investigation into the tech giants – Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Google, for starters – over allegations they are skewing search results to achieve a certain (Left-wing) political outcome. And they are doing it even after taking money from customers and clients whose interests are harmed by having their content downgraded and hidden by the social media behemoths.
In fact, the Trump administration has launched a probe. As Big League Politics reports, the Justice Department announced late Tuesday that it is conducting an antitrust review of Big Tech. From a statement issued by the department:
The Department of Justice announced today that the Department’s Antitrust Division is reviewing whether and how market-leading online platforms have achieved market power and are engaging in practices that have reduced competition, stifled innovation, or otherwise harmed consumers. The Department’s review will consider the widespread concerns that consumers, businesses, and entrepreneurs have expressed about search, social media, and some retail services online.
Not only is declaring Antifa a terrorist group long overdue, so is holding the extremely biased tech giants accountable for defrauding users by pretending to be politically neutral.
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