The Daily Beast
20-year-old politician MAGA’s war against Antifa backfires horribly
Photographic illustration of The Daily Beast / Photos via FacebookChaos. Incivility. Lack of respect for authority. These are the things that a Montana lawmaker accuses antifascists in a new resolution that aims to designate the movement as a “domestic terrorist organization”. But the move is struggling to take off, and the 20-year deadline – MAGA’s former acolyte who became a state legislator under pressure seems to be the reason. Days after protesters from the far right invaded the United States Capitol, Montana, Rep. Braxton Mitchell presented a resolution aimed at the opposite end of the political spectrum: “antifa”, the left-wing anti-fascist movement freely affiliated. Forget that “antifa” is not a centralized group, nor that the United States government does not make these designations of “domestic terror”. The bill is the latest attempt to impose penalties on the left, even if national security experts beg lawmakers to watch for further attacks from the far right. Unlike previous anti-fascist projects, however, the biggest obstacle to this may be your own sponsor. The GOP representative blames Antifa and black lives are important After Mitchell, a freshman legislator, introduced him to a contentious meeting at the Montana House on February 16, most Republican co-sponsors of the project withdrew their names from measure. “He misbehaved. He got a little out of control on the committee and I think most of the co-sponsors gave up then, ”one of the 32 former co-sponsors, Republican Rep. Larry Brewster, told The Daily Beast. “I suspect that the co-sponsors withdrew as a way to censor him.” Unlike some of his older colleagues at the Montana House, Mitchell comes from a young right-wing movement. In 2018, he organized pro-gun marches in opposition to the “March for Our Lives” demonstrations by some of his classmates. He joined Turning Point USA, a well-funded student club, and became an ambassador for the group. After Donald Trump contested his defeat in the 2020 elections, Mitchell used Twitter to broaden an appeal to members of Congress to reject voters “from disputed states”. He also tweeted a photo and video of the far-right paramilitary group The Proud Boys in the pro-Trump “Million MAGA March”, a November 14 demonstration. “’Proud Boys’ are outside The Willard in DC singing the national anthem,” he tweeted. “#MillionMAGAMarch #ProudBoys * This tweet is not an endorsement *” During Mitchell’s campaign, screenshots circulated of him allegedly tweeting an anti-gay slander. However, Mitchell previously told Hungry Horse News that the images were photoshopped. Sought to comment, Mitchell linked himself to the oldest story and told The Daily Beast that “I don’t want to comment on the resolution.” His Twitter account disappeared at the time of his reply. The bill was already incendiary before it was even presented. The text is virtually identical to that of a bill killed in the water presented to the U.S. Senate in 2019 by Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Bill Cassidy. This older bill, which also moved to designate “antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization, did not provide a definition of non-group, except to claim that antifascists “represent opposition to democratic ideals of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression for everyone ”and“ believe that freedom of speech is tantamount to violence. ”Michael Loadenthal, executive director of the Peace and Justice Studies Association at Georgetown University, said the Cruz-Cassidy bill and the Mitchell bill do part of a worrying trend. in recent years, we’ve seen a significant increase “in bills that try to criminalize anti-fascism, Loadenthal told The Daily Beast. Trump often called to designate anti-fascists as terrorists and propagated unfounded conspiracy theories about the movement After the Capitol attacks, many Trump supporters falsely blamed Antifa for the invasion. Mitchell’s project “fits very well with the post-January 6 insurrectionary attempt to shuffle or shift guilt and responsibility.” But despite calls to designate anti-fascists as a “domestic terrorism” organization, there is no such legal framework at the national level, noted Loadenthal. “We have no domestic terrorism law in this country. There is no crime of domestic terrorism at the federal level, ”he said. “We are unable to add antifascists to the list of domestic terrorist organizations because there is no list of domestic terrorist organizations.” Instead, say experts like Loadenthal, such legislation could serve as a means of silencing dissent or intimidating the left. The Cruz-Cassidy bill attributed a handful of incidents in California and Oregon to antifa or, more broadly, to “left-wing activists”. Mitchell’s bill, which borrows the same text, does not cite any Montana-related incidents. Even ex-white supremacists who operated near Mitchell’s home district say his proposal does not hit the mark. In 2011, Scott Ernest became co-leader of Kalispell Pioneer Little Europe (PLE), a whites-only settlement 30 minutes from Mitchell district. The position put him in conflict with antifascists, who he now describes as significantly less dangerous than the white supremacists he worked with. “There is no comparison,” he told The Daily Beast. Although Ernest was involved in the selection of PLE recruits, and in moderating the white supremacist message board Stormfront, he began to have doubts about the movement when members began defending the massacre of young Norwegian leftists – some of them children – by the white supremacist Anders Breivik. “People were saying to me, ‘They are communists, they are antifa, so they deserve it. ‘This was the first time that I questioned this, ”he said. Ernest has since left the movement and founded an organization dedicated to extracting people from the ideologies of white supremacy. Kalispell’s PLE is extinct. When Mitchell presented his bill to the committee, some of his colleagues raised similar objections. Congressman Ed Stafman, a Democrat, observed an October 2020 report from the Department of Homeland Security, which singled out white supremacists as the “most persistent and lethal threat in the Fatherland”. This policeman joined the Capitol protest. Then she spread an antifa conspiracy. “In the 28-page report, there is no mention of antifa as a domestic terrorism organization,” Stafman told Mitchell, looking at the often documented problem of white supremacy in Montana. “I think your district is close to Whitefish, where neo-Nazis launched a terror campaign in 2018 against Jews there, resulting in a $ 14 million trial, but not until Whitefish Jews had to endure numerous threats to their lives. ” A representative asked Mitchell if he had consulted law enforcement officials about the project – he had not. Another questioned why Mitchell said in his opening comments that the bill was bipartisan, when no Democrats signed it. “I was making a joke about the project,” replied Mitchell. But not even his Republican colleagues were laughing. “Representative, we don’t necessarily think this is a joke issue,” replied the committee’s Republican chairman. “This is a House project that is being presented to our committee on behalf of the citizens of Montana.” So far, 32 of these Republican colleagues – most of the original 53 co-sponsors of the project – have withdrawn their sponsorship after the project, as the Associated Press Report. Some may have rescued Mitchell’s behavior, as suggested by Brewster, the Republican representative. Others told the AP that they would consider supporting the bill if it was extended to include other groups, although Mitchell seems adamant that the legislation deals only with “antifa”. “This project is specific to a group and the intention is to keep it that way,” he said in committee, when the president asked if he would be open to expand the project. “So what you are saying is that you are not willing to host amendments,” said the president. President, if I could – ”“ No, you can’t. “And when another representative asked why Mitchell’s bill did not list a single incident in Montana, Mitchell replied that” the intention is to send a message that we, as a state, will not tolerate a group like this entering our country. state or get involved in such actions in our state … Yes, it is stated in the bill for offenses from other areas, but, yes. Ernest, the former white supremacist, told The Daily Beast that antifascists helped him leave the movement – and that Montana is already home to many of them. They are simply not doing what people like Mitchell say they do. “Everyone I met there is a native of Montana,” Ernest said. “They a) are not a threat and b) are already there. They have been there for a long time. ”Read more at The Daily Beast. Do you have a tip? Submit to The Daily Beast here. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Subscribe now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper into the stories that matter to you. To know more.