Antifa killed 23-year-old mathematics student Quentin Deranque in Lyon, France, this week. The nationalist activist was beaten by at least six individuals, suffering fatal skull and brain injuries. Antifa and ISIS are both terrorist organizations that have killed innocent people. President Trump dismantled ISIS, while the Biden administration denied the existence of Antifa and, critics argue, enabled the group.
Today, ISIS is far smaller than it was before President Trump’s first administration, but Antifa is growing and becoming increasingly international.
The Biden administration aided Antifa through what critics describe as political protection, media censorship, and information suppression. The administration’s failure to counter Antifa violence effectively was not merely the result of legal constraints or constitutional limitations. Political protection, mainstream-media censorship, social-media suppression, and outright denial by key political figures created an environment in which Antifa operated with virtual impunity, while those documenting its activities faced systematic silencing.
The term “mostly peaceful protest” became a mantra repeated across mainstream media to describe riots, even when people were killed. Democrats repeatedly claimed that Antifa did not exist, and major media outlets minimized or failed to report the violence and extensive property damage during the summer of George Floyd. News organizations framed the Portland violence as “peaceful protests,” even as federal buildings were under siege and officers were assaulted with improvised weapons.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s description of ICE as a “terrorist force” highlights the challenges federal law enforcement faces when prominent elected officials publicly criticize or condemned enforcement agencies instead of focusing on acts of violence. In Washington state, an individual linked to Antifa attempted to attack ICE’s Northwest Processing Center. After the incident, Jayapal attributed the broader climate of violence to rhetoric from the political right, a position critics argue shifted attention away from the seriousness of the attempted attack against detainees and facility personnel.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler provided what critics describe as a clear example of political dismissal of Antifa-related violence. When confronted by journalist Austen Fletcher in July 2020 about ongoing unrest in Portland, Nadler responded, “That’s a myth that’s being spread only in Washington, D.C.” His remarks followed weeks of documented violence, including repeated clashes, federal officers reportedly injured by laser attacks, and billions of dollars in property damage nationwide.
During House floor debates, Nadler referred to Antifa as “imaginary,” dismissing Republican concerns about left-wing extremism as “errant nonsense, off-topic, dealing with imaginary things like Antifa.” As chairman of the committee responsible for oversight of federal law enforcement, critics argue that his remarks contributed to a political climate in which confronting Antifa-related violence became increasingly contentious.
Most recently, Democrats opposed President Trump’s designation of Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. However, Antifa’s existence and its pattern of violence have been widely documented by law-enforcement agencies and media reports.
Some political figures not only provided rhetorical cover for Antifa but also supported organizations that assisted individuals arrested during unrest. Then–Vice President Kamala Harris publicly promoted bail funds, including the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which posted bail for individuals arrested during the 2020 riots.
The fund helped secure the release of people facing charges ranging from assault to arson, and some individuals released on bail were later accused of committing additional offenses while awaiting trial.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez publicly defended confrontational protest tactics, stating, “The whole point of protesting is to make ppl uncomfortable.” She argued that activists had tried “playing the ‘polite language’ policy game” but gained traction only after making people uncomfortable. Critics contend that such remarks provided ideological justification for more aggressive protest tactics.
The most visible example of organized activist activity during the summer of 2020 was the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, also known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, in Seattle. For 23 days, activists controlled six city blocks, established informal governance structures, and excluded police from the area. The zone experienced multiple shootings, including the deaths of 19-year-old Horace Anderson and a 16-year-old boy, both of whom were Black.
When police attempted to respond to emergency calls inside the zone, protesters physically blocked their entry. The human and financial costs were substantial. Seattle ultimately paid $12 million in legal settlements related to CHOP, including $3.6 million for property-damage claims from residents and business owners who were denied access to their properties. The city also faced criticism for deleting tens of thousands of text messages related to its handling of CHOP.
During the 2020 unrest, independent journalists such as Andy Ngo and Tim Pool reported extensively on Antifa-related violence that they said contradicted mainstream media narratives. Their reporting documented sustained attacks on federal buildings in Portland for more than 100 consecutive nights, the use of high-powered lasers aimed at federal officers, arson attacks on police stations and government buildings, and property damage nationwide that exceeded $2 billion.
On June 29, 2019, Ngo was assaulted in Portland by individuals associated with Rose City Antifa, suffering a subarachnoid hemorrhage after being struck and beaten. In August 2023, an Oregon judge awarded Ngo $300,000 in damages against three defendants for assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He has argued that his reporting exposed a systematic pattern of attacks against journalists, business owners, and others perceived as political opponents.
Under the Biden administration, conservative accounts and independent journalists reported that their social-media profiles were suspended or restricted after sharing eyewitness accounts and cellphone videos of unrest. Critics said this created a gap between events documented on the ground and how they were portrayed in mainstream media coverage.
Conservative users and independent reporters said their posts were restricted, shadowbanned, or removed for sharing footage of Antifa-related activity. Research found that conservative accounts were suspended at significantly higher rates than liberal accounts during this period, including for content documenting left-wing violence. Twitter suspended accounts that shared footage of attacks on federal buildings in Portland, labeled certain videos of property destruction as “manipulated media,” and limited the reach of posts related to violence in CHOP and CHAZ.
Facebook implemented similar moderation measures. Internal company documents later showed that the platform communicated with federal agencies about content flagged as problematic. Mark Zuckerberg later stated that the company faced pressure from the Biden administration to moderate or remove certain content, including material that challenged official narratives about the protests.
Law enforcement agencies faced operational challenges along with political criticism from elected officials. Federal agents deployed to protect courthouses in Portland were described by some Democratic officials as “secret police” and “stormtroopers.” In several cities, local prosecutors adopted policies that limited prosecution of certain protest-related arrests, creating a revolving-door effect that critics argue encouraged continued unrest.
The Biden administration’s Justice Department placed significant emphasis on investigating and prosecuting individuals involved in the January 6 events. This focus coincided with comparatively less public attention and fewer visible resources directed toward left-wing extremism. Although FBI data reflected a range of domestic-terrorism cases involving different ideological motivations, official messaging and resource allocation concentrated more heavily on right-wing threats while, according to critics, downplaying Antifa-related activity.
Biden’s FBI Director, Christopher Wray, acknowledged in September 2020 testimony that while Antifa is “an ideology, not an organization,” it represents “a real thing” that requires serious law-enforcement attention.
When asked whether Antifa activities matched the federal definition of domestic terrorism, Wray stated, “It certainly matches the activity of some of the individuals we’re investigating and have pursued other kinds of charges against.”
Neither Democrats nor the press accused Wray of lying about Antifa’s existence or its violence. However, critics argue that his testimony was effectively ignored by the Biden administration and that the press continues to claim Republicans exaggerate the threat posed by Antifa.
Recent events suggest the Antifa threat is evolving rather than diminishing. The coordinated nature of the Alvarado attack, combined with ongoing violence in Portland and other cities, indicates planning and execution capabilities despite the movement’s decentralized structure.
The targeting of federal immigration-enforcement facilities appears to reflect a strategic focus, with incidents occurring across multiple states within a compressed timeframe. This pattern suggests either improved coordination among local cells or influence from shared ideological messaging.
Rising attacks in Europe also suggest the possibility of transnational coordination. Given that Democrats oppose President Trump’s effort to designate Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, he could instead pursue designation as a transnational terrorist organization. If that were done, perhaps the politicians and other supporting them could be held responsible.
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