Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., was incredulous that Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden said that antifa was merely an ideology during Tuesday night’s debate with President Donald Trump, pointing out on Newsmax TV that Portland has endured 111 days of continuous riots and protests.
"To think ‘it’s just an ideology, (it’s just) a movement,’ have they been to Portland lately? Have they seen Seattle?" Collins said on "Greg Kelly Reports." "Can I just remind them of where they're at?"
Portland has seen non-stop protests and riots since shortly after Memorial Day when a Black man died in police custody in Minneapolis. On Tuesday, police said they discovered two vehicles with riot materials, including shields, helmets, gas masks, CO2 cans and paintball guns.
Collins also referred to Seattle’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), also known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), a six-block area of the downtown area that was commandeered by activists on June 8 and eventually cleared on July 1.
Attorney General William Barr identified antifa as a violent radical group whose members were being investigated as early as May 31.
He also said police chiefs around the country have identified antifa as a "ramrod for violence."
Collins, 53, has represented Georgia’s 9th Congressional District in the northeast corner of the state since 2013. He is challenging fellow Republican and incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a special election for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the resignation of Johnny Isakson.
He said Biden’s inability to condemn, or even identify, antifa as a threat in cities that have been protesting "systemic racism" in the United States shows that the group is an element of the Democratic Party which he can not afford to alienate.
"He is simply, right now, having to pander to the left," Collins said of Biden. "They continue to go left, but he doesn’t want mainstream America to know that because he’s trying to hide the fact that he has no ideas."
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