Former CIA Director John Brennan said he is “concerned” about the rhetoric coming from some left-wing members of Congress as he warned about antifa’s “vigilantism.”
Juliette Kayyem, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, broached the topic of left-wing radicalization in a conversation on Tuesday with the longtime intelligence officer, with the discussion moderator seeking a “sense of balance” as she noted there appears to be a great deal of focus by the FBI on right-wing extremism.
In his response, Brennan acknowledged people who fall under a “broad rubric of antifa” while saying politicians should choose their words more carefully, lest they be used by political foes to widen a partisan divide within the United States.
“I am concerned about some of this rhetoric that’s coming from the Left,” Brennan said. “Again, I think ideologues on both ends of the political spectrum are dangerous, and there are individuals on the Left who are engaging in vigilantism themselves that fall under this broad rubric of antifa, anti-fascist elements. But I do think that ideologues are just blind to reality, and they do not look for ways to allow people from across that political spectrum to live peacefully together.”
As an example of the rhetorical debate over antifa, last month FBI Director Christopher Wray contradicted President Joe Biden’s comments about antifa, with the bureau chief arguing that the radical leftist group was not just an “idea” but rather a real threat that the FBI was investigating.
Last summer, during congressional testimony on antifa, Wray had said the FBI viewed the group as an “ideology” or “movement” but declined to call it an organization. That brought a swift rebuke from then-President Donald Trump and was exploited by Biden as a candidate, who subtly twisted Wray’s quote, calling antifa an “idea” instead and implying the bureau chief said only white supremacists were a true threat.
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“I am concerned that, including some politicians in Congress who are far left, are just, I think, almost stoking these concerns that people have that America is sliding into a socialist state,” Brennan added in his interview, without naming anyone in particular. “I don’t believe it is, but I think the rhetoric and the words that politicians use need to be very carefully crafted, because some of the statements that are made tends to provoke counterattacks from the other side and that, again, just separates us into left- and right-wing in this county.”
In April, Wray was grilled by Republicans about what he thought of antifa during a House Intelligence Committee hearing.
“We consider antifa to be more of a movement. … There are certainly local and regional nodes, individuals who self-identify with antifa, who commit violent attacks citing that as their motivation, and we have a number of predicated investigations into such individuals. Antifa is a real thing; it’s not a fiction, and it’s a concern,” Wray said.
The FBI director also said, “So, we take anarchist violent extremism, much of which associates with the antifa movement, very seriously. … It is something that we investigate very aggressively, and in fact, the number of investigations in that space is something that’s dramatically increased on my watch over the last few years. And I think last year, we had more arrests in the anarchic violent extremism space than in the prior three years combined.”
Biden used Wray’s comments last year to downplay the threat posed by antifa during the first presidential debate. Biden falsely implied Wray had said antifa was not a threat and misquoted him, saying that Wray called antifa an “idea” — not an “ideology” or a “movement.”
“His own FBI director said the threat comes from white supremacists — antifa is an idea, not an organization,” Biden said, with Trump retorting, “Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me.” The Democratic candidate then repeated: “That’s what his FBI director said.”
“Well, then you know what? He’s wrong,” Trump said. “When a bat hits you over the head, that’s not an idea. Antifa is bad.”
Then-Attorney General William Barr declared in May 2020 that violence being “instigated and carried out” by “antifa and other similar groups” in connection to nationwide rioting is “domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly.”
Last summer, self-described antifa member Michael Forest Reinoehl shot and killed right-wing Patriot Prayer supporter Aaron “Jay” Danielson on the streets of Portland, Oregon, fleeing to Washington, where the U.S. marshals found him, and when he attempted to escape and produced a firearm, he was killed by law enforcement.
The Justice Department announced last year that more than 300 people were charged with federal crimes during nationwide protests and rioting last year, with 80 charges related to arson and explosives and others tied to assault on law enforcement and the destruction of government property. There were an estimated 14,000 or more total arrests during protests across the country, and more than two dozen people died.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said in March during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that “we’re not serious about tackling domestic extremism if we tolerate mobs that attack some police officers but not others” and that “more than 700 officers were injured between May 27, 2020, and June 8, 2020, alone.”
Under the Biden administration, Attorney General Merrick Garland indicated the Justice Department was prioritizing prosecutions related to the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol over those tied to last summer’s riots during an appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“The role of the Justice Department is to investigate and prosecute violations of the criminal law, regardless of ideology,” Garland said in May testimony. However, he also said, “I think it is fair to say that, in my career as a judge and in law enforcement, I have not seen a more dangerous threat to democracy than the invasion of the Capitol. This was an attempt by some — and I want to be very careful to not ascribe it to all, because every case is individually decided — but there was an attempt to interfere with a fundamental element of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power. And if there has to be a hierarchy of things that we prioritize, this would be the one that we prioritize, because it is the most dangerous threat to our democracy.”
Earlier in their conversation, Brennan told Kayyem that the “legacy,” as well as the cause of the Jan. 6 siege of Congress, which disrupted lawmakers certifying Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory, worries him moving forward.
“Unfortunately, there has been this growth, particularly in right-wing extremism and white militias, in terms of vigilantism that they are going to try to take matters into their own hands. … And I think, unfortunately, they have been fueled by a lot of the rhetoric that is coming out of politicians who know better but are trying to, again, gather support for their own political agendas.”
Here, too, he lamented polarization on both sides of the aisle across the county, but expressed particular concern with the “growth in especially right-wing extremism.” Brennan said this is because of “individuals who refuse to, I guess, accept the results of elections and, unfortunately, there have been some media outlets that, again, stoke those flames of misunderstandings that people have of what happens in the political environment.”
After naming a few Republicans in Congress who have stood up to Trump, including Rep. Liz Cheney and Sen. Mitt Romney, Brennan called for more “influencers who have the credibility” to speak up and “discredit these ideologues” who he said “fuel the sentiments on the far Right,” naming Sen. Lindsey Graham as an example.
The Justice Department’s investigations have often pointed to violence conducted against officers by rioters and has focused on actions taken by members of far-right groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. Hundreds of police officers responded to the Capitol riot, and officials have said dozens were injured.
The medical examiner’s office told the Washington Examiner last month that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick’s “cause of death” soon after the riot was “acute brainstem and cerebellar infarcts due to acute basilar artery thrombosis” and that the “manner of death” was “natural.”
The Justice Department announced in April that it would not pursue charges against the U.S. Capitol Police officer who fatally shot 35-year-old Air Force veteran and Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt inside the Capitol during the riot, determining there was “insufficient evidence” to support a criminal prosecution.
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The House voted on Wednesday to create a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. GOP leaders who opposed the commission said it was unnecessary due to the DOJ investigations and that it could be used as a political weapon ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
