Later in the show, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway made the same false claim.
Fox & Friends suggests that antifa stands for “anti-first amendment”
Written by Media Matters Staff
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From the August 19 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
DAN BONGINO (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Steve, they're not counter-protesters, OK? You've been in the media a long time. Other outlets do this, it's called gaslighting. Tell a lie, tell a lie confidently, and isolate people from the truth, and you can get people to believe anything. Antifa are not counter-protesters, it is an anti-first amendment -- that's what it stands for. They tell you it stands for "anti-fascist," it really is "anti-first amendment." They are an anti-first amendment, ultra-violent terror group that wants to silence people's free speech. They are not counter-protesters. I don't know what the other group was about. I -- you -- I -- I -- I totally totally, completely, 100 -- 100% disavow violence. It has no place in a political conversation, ever, period, full-stop, on any side. And that will never, ever, ever back away from that no matter what. But antifa, this is -- I'm not saying nobody else does anything wrong, I'm simply saying the evidence of antifa and their ultra-violent routine is everywhere. Stop calling them counter-protesters.
Video file
Citation
From the August 19 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
GRIFF JENKINS (GUEST CO-HOST): I talked to one of the leaders of antifa even though they say they have no leaders, but I spoke to a prominent one in Washington that was there during your inauguration, and she says that she sees this as an attempt -- an assault on their first amendment rights. Your reaction?
KELLYANNE CONWAY (COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT): My reaction is, do we know what "antifa" stands for? It's "anti-first amendment." So, that's very curious. But your first amendment does not -- your first amendment right to free speech does not extend to you being physically violent towards another human being because you disagree with their politics or because they have a red MAGA hat on. That has to stop, just like the guy in Philadelphia shooting at 6 police officers, he's got a rap sheet the size of me, and everybody's screaming about gun control. This -- people have to focus on the violence that's happening, you can't just pick and choose who you think is criminally reprehensible and violent and worthy of punishment based on their politics.
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Well, let's see what the president does.
CONWAY: We're a nation that is built on the rule of law.
DOOCY: We are indeed.