Representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas stated in a hearing, “There’s been a lot of peaceful protests, that is absolutely true. There’s also been more than five hundred and fifty declared riots, many stoked by extremists, antifa, and the BLM organization. Recent report indicated between one and two billion dollars of insurance claims will be paid out. That doesn’t even come close to measuring the actual and true damage done to people’s lives. Not even close. That’s just insurance. We’ve heard multiple reports of small businesses without any insurance whatsoever. Some of these will never open up, even if they did get insurance payments.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw made remarks on how recent violent riots have devastated small businesses and citizens across the country. Crenshaw challenged FBI Director Wray’s notion that antifa is more of an ‘ideology’ rather than a ‘group’.
Crenshaw stated, “I’ve heard many members of this body of this committee question whether antifa even exists. Director Wray, earlier you confirmed antifa does indeed exist, but you consider it more of an ideology than a group. Correct?”
Director Wray answered, “Yes, an ideology or maybe a movement.”
Crenshaw responded, “OK. That seems to me to be downplaying it. And this is an ideology that organizes locally. It coordinates regionally and nationally, wears a standardized uniform. It collects funds to buy high powered lasers to blind federal officers, build homemade explosive devices, feed their rioters since they clearly aren’t working, and then bail out those who’ve been arrested. This is an ideology that has trained its members, makes shield wall phalanxes to attack federal officers. It formed an autonomous zone in an American city and besieged a federal courthouse in another. So, I mean, it just seems to be more than an ideology. Do you have a way to define what you mean by it’s not a group?”
Director Wray answers, “So I want to be clear that by describing it as as an ideology or a movement, I by no means mean to minimize the seriousness of the violence and criminality that is going on across the country, some of which is attributable to that people inspired by or who self identify with that ideology movement. We’re focused on that violence, on that criminality. And some of it is extremely serious.”
Crenshaw stops him and states, “You mentioned before three categories: the criminality, the peaceful, protesting, but then you didn’t use these words, but I will. Ideological rioting. I think that’s sort of matches that third category of what you said, the people who purposefully want to instigate it. Antifa being clearly one of them. So I want to read you the definition of domestic terrorism. Section 2331 says domestic terrorism has three components. A – involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any state. B – appear to be intended first to intimidate or coerce a civilian population to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or three, to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping. And C – occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. Does that at all match the activities of antifa?”
Wray responds, “Well, certainly matches the activity of some of the individuals we’re investigating.”
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