The Frontlines TPUSA team conducted a comprehensive panel during AmericaFest titled “In the Belly of the Beast: Confronting and Exposing Antifa,” with the team relating their experiences reporting on the controversial anti-fascist movement and organization.
Frontlines Manager Brandon Drey moderated the panel consisting of reporters Kalen D’Almeida, Jonathan Choe, Savanah Hernandez, White House Correspondent Monica Paige, and Bo Alford (aka Bo Diddle), each of whom, though they have their respective beats, have encountered Antifa variously throughout their careers.
The panel discussed the most rowdy Antifa demonstrations they covered throughout the past year.
“There have been so many insane stories this past year,” Choe began. “But I would just say a few months ago, our team infiltrated an anarchist book fair in Oakland and Seattle and this is, as the title of this panel suggests, the underbelly of planning and recruiting and strategizing for Antifa and far-left activists.”
“And I think the most eye-opening piece to all of this,” he continued, “is that these are our neighbors. These are, our friends, potentially; young people, and many of them were in the trans community. So you have a lot of people who are marginalized; also people who hate the church, who openly worship Satan. So I think there’s a lot of spiritual warfare that I saw on the ground behind a lot of these movements.”
Hernandez discussed her experience with Antifa while reporting on the ground in California.
“I went to UC Berkeley a couple of weeks ago. And I actually watched that violence come to fruition during a Turning Point USA event that was attacked by Antifa. Smoke bombs were being lit off. Trump supporters were being punched in the face. And you had 12 year olds who were getting screamed in their faces: that they were fascists, while Antifa members–who, by the way, it’s funny because a lot of people are like, how do you know they’re Antifa members? Well, it’s because they’re chanting, I’m Antifa,” she said.
The protests Paige has encountered this year are of a different manner, slightly, with her being based in the nation’s capitol.
“What’s interesting is that because I’m in Washington, DC, a lot of the protests that we do see have a little to do with Antifa but more to do with a lot of these organized groups that come to Washington, DC, that come outside of the White House and think that they’re going to make a difference by just shouting at the White House, even if the president is not even there,” Paige said.
Drey asked Bo Alford his thoughts on Antifa which of late was designated a “domestic terrorist organization” by the Trump administration and what fuels them to continue their brand of activism. Alford blamed animosity toward Donald Trump and his supporters.
“I don’t even think that it’s their beliefs that are fueling them, it is more the hatred of us that is fueling them,” he said.
The team also discussed the Antifa book fairs and the resources provided there, which Frontlines covered at length during a panel in November, emphasizing the subject of Antifa members ultimately being “lost” and in need of community.
“These people are lost, at the same time these young people have so much potential,” Choe said, “If the church or if the community would go in and do outreach and be their friends, because ultimately I felt like that was what they were looking for, and that’s how you get to these people to disrupt these networks.”
