A reporter attending Friday’s White House press briefing has earned national scorn after trying to equate the domestic terrorists and insurrectionists who engaged in the January 6 attempted coup that led to more than five deaths and caused about 150 Capitol Police to be injured, with the loosely organized anti-fascism movement known as Antifa.
“I think a lot of people want to know how does this administration define the term ‘domestic terrorist’?” the reporter, whose identity is currently unknown, asked.
“In what way?” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki generously and patiently asked.
“Does that include Antifa? Specifically, what, how do you set those parameters for domestic terrorists especially as we see, you know a lot of focus on the January 6, maybe not as much focus on some of the extremism and violence in the north, the Northwest,” she sputtered.
“Well, I’ve answered a version of this question a couple times before,” Psaki replied, gently encouraging the fledgling reporter to do her homework before entering the hallowed room, “but I know everybody’s not in the briefing room every day. The reason we have the [domestic violent extremism] review – which is not a political review – but is a review done by our national security team, something tasked again to take a review of domestic violent extremism, will cover incidents, across the board.”
Many responded on social media, few were as gracious as the press secretary.