Dem Rep. Keith Ellison endorses Antifa handbook, says it will ‘strike fear’ in Trump’s heart

Joe NewbyJanuary 4, 2018

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On Wednesday, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., issued a tweet in which he endorsed an Antifa handbook — saying the book about the violent communist movement will “strike fear into the heart” of President Donald Trump.

“At @MoonPalaceBooks and I just found the book that strike fear in the heart of @realDonaldTrump,” he wrote.

https://twitter.com/keithellison/status/948657342308147202

Is Ellison publicly endorsing violence against the president? It sure seemed that way to quite a few on Twitter.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

Yes

https://twitter.com/Hunter_Shawley/status/948657983495507970

Antifa doesn’t doesn’t advocate violence — they’ve engaged in it multiple times.

“A terrorist manual should concern the president. Especially in the hands of a member of Congress,” added media analyst Mark Dice.

https://twitter.com/MarkDice/status/948745187924230144

Dice is on to something here. As we and others reported, the New Jersey state Department of Homeland Security has labeled Antifa a domestic terror organization and federal authorities have said the group engages in domestic terror activities.

What’s scary is that Ellison — who also happens to be the deputy chair of the DNC — actually seems to be endorsing this.

Cassandra Fairbanks correctly observed:

Members of Antifa believe that violence is justified when used against political foes or to send a message during protests. Many claim that violence against “fascists,” or anyone to the right of Karl Marx, is justified as self-defense from an imagined threat. From rioting and causing over $500,000 in property damage to the area surrounding University of California at Berkeley to prevent Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking to bashing a stranger over the head with a bike lock for the crime of supporting our president, members of Antifa have become increasingly willing to use violence for political aims since the election.

Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, promoted the violent movement in October when he told Teen Vogue: “Antifa grows out of a larger revolutionary politics that aspires toward creating a better world.”

The Daily Caller added:

Antifa is a far-left group that uses violence to achieve progressive political ends, including starting riots and fires at the University of California, Berkeley. While the group claims to be anti-Fascist, they routinely shut down the speech of people they disagree with. Antifa clashed with far-right protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year.

The book, written by Dartmouth professor Mark Bray, argues that “militant anti-fascism is a reasonable, historically informed response to the fascist threat that persisted after 1945 and that has become especially menacing in recent years.”

According to Bray, it is acceptable to use violence against “fascism” because what he considers to be fascist ideas — like those shared by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopolous — aren’t worthy of debate.

Bray also states that anti-fascists must be prepared to “physically confront the far right when necessary.”

One Twitter user told Ellison he might as well be wearing an SS uniform: “So you support fascism? Because antifa is nothing more than fascism disguised as anti-fascism. Why don’t you just say you hate the Constitution and individual civil liberties such as ‘dissenting’ free speech? You might as well be dressed in an SS uniform.”

https://twitter.com/guajardo_bobby/status/948669766343864320

Another person added:

Antifa is a terrorist organization. You are promoting violence, division and hatred! That is not what a US representative should be doing. You should be promoting unity. You need to resign!

— Rachel (@GoldnemovesGold) January 4, 2018

Better yet, perhaps he should be censured by Congress for promoting violence.

One person suggested Ellison take the picture down:

https://twitter.com/deb_lavoy/status/948657654058115074

Actually, Ellison should keep it up. Better yet, he should post more like it to help educate voters about the modern Democrat Party.

But why would you proudly display that when the FBI deemed them as a terrorist group? This strikes fear in me that you are in Congress.

— Hope Rising (@Boomingbox) January 4, 2018