Chris Cuomo Defends Antifa After Violence: ‘Not to Be Judged the Same as the Bigots’
“In a clash between hate and those who oppose it, those who oppose it are on the side of right,” says CNN anchor on Monday
Jon Levine | August 14, 2018 @ 5:48 AM
Last Updated: August 14, 2018 @ 6:11 AM
Chris Cuomo delivered a passionate monologue on Monday evening, defending Antifa after several incidents of violence from its members over the weekend while counter-protesting against white supremacists in Washington D.C. and Charlottesville, Virginia.
The CNN anchor said there could be no “moral equivalency” between violence from the two camps and that outbursts from those protesting hate was more excusable than those promoting hate.
“It’s not about being right in the eyes of the law, but you also have to know what’s right and wrong in a moral and a good and evil sense,” said Cuomo “That’s why people who show up to fight against bigots are not to be judged the same as the bigots, even if they do resort to the same kinds of petty violence. The law will take care of that.”
Cuomo also said that the issue was comparable to fighting an immoral enemy in a war or the civil rights movement.
“Fighting against hate matters,” he said. “In a clash between hate and those who oppose it, those who oppose it are on the side of right.”
On Sunday, less than two dozen supremacists were met in Washington D.C and Charlottesville by hundreds of counter-protesters. Many were members of Antifa, the self-described anti-fascist group, and multiple instances were reported of journalists being heckled, shoved or otherwise impeded from doing their work. Cuomo’s colleagues, Brian Stelter and Jake Tapper both condemned the violence
Unacceptable behavior by a protester in C'Ville last night — violently swatting away a journalist's camera — I asked @CalNBC for more info, and he deferred to his tweets, which described the protest as "almost exclusively Antifa at that point." https://t.co/BJ2t5HGceZ
The rallies were organized by white supremacists groups looking to mark the one year anniversary of the deadly “Unite The Right” rallies in Charlottesville. That clash drew hundreds of torch-bearing white nationalists and resulted in the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer.
President Trump infamously declined to explicitly condemn the white nationalists saying that there were “very fine people” on “both sides”
Mike Cernovich, a Timeline: From Choking Advice to Pizzagate to Firings (Photos)
Maybe you'd never heard of right-wing provocateur Mike Cernovich before last week, when he helped get James Gunn fired from the next "Guardians of the Galaxy" film by highlighting Gunn's old Twitter jokes about rape and pedophilia. But Cernovich himself has a long history online, filled with both successes and statements he has since distanced himself from -- for reasons that will be obvious.
Advice on Choking Women
Before gaining fame as a Trump superfan, Cernovich got his start in the men's rights and pick-up artist community. His advice column, published on his blog "Danger and Play," included suggestions on the proper way to "choke" women during sex. This entry from December 2011 has since been deleted: "Choking works because it’s a show of dominance. Women only want to have consensual sex with men they know could rape them."
Pizzagate
Cernovich first came to wide public attention over his promotion of a conspiracy theory during the 2016 election that suggested that a pedophile ring was being run out of the basement of a Washington, D.C. pizzeria. The story was bunk, and Cernovich has moved to distance himself from Pizzagate.
Will Sommer/Twitter
John Conyers
Cernovich's biggest score of all probably wasn't James Gunn, but John Conyers. A tip provided by Cernovich to BuzzFeed about accusations of sexual misconduct forced the Democrat to resign his seat in disgrace in December 2017.
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Sam Seder
Mike Cernovich targeted the MSNBC contributor over a years-old joke about his daughter being raped. MSNBC dropped Seder in December 2017, but reinstated him after a public backlash.
MSNBC
Sopan Deb
Cernovich went after New York Times reporter Sopan Deb in March 2017 over a tweeted pun about the rapper Bow Wow. The incident earned Deb an official rebuke from the Times' then-public editor, Liz Spayd.
Josh Barro
In November 2017, Cernovich demanded an apology from Josh Barro after the Business Insider Senior Editor made fun of his lisp. Barro swiftly retreated.
Twitter
Perry Fein
In June 2018, Los Angeles Times freelancer Perry Fein slipped into Cernovich's DMs and wished harm upon him. His relationship with the newspaper was over just hours later.
Los Angeles Times Media Group
James Gunn
Last week, Cernovich helped lead an online campaign highlighting old tweets in which Gunn joked about rape about pedophilia. Gunn offered an apology, but was dropped by Disney from the "Guardians of the Galaxy" franchise.
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Cheri Jacobus
Before the James Gunn situation, Cernovich also led a brief and successful campaign to pressure USA Today to drop columnist Cheri Jacobus. The decision from the paper came after Jacobus' bizarre comments about convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Michael Ian Black
Cernovich has trained his fire on comedian Michael Ian Black, who has said several times on Twitter that his tweets about pedophilia were only jokes.
YouTube
Dan Harmon
Fresh off his victory in ousting Gunn from "Guardians of the Galaxy," Cernovich forced "Rick and Morty" co-creator Dan Harmon and his employers at Adult Swim to apologize over an old sketch that featured Harmon graphically simulating the rape of a baby. (The sketch used a doll, not an actual baby.)
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The right-wing provocateur has become a thorn to liberals online
Maybe you'd never heard of right-wing provocateur Mike Cernovich before last week, when he helped get James Gunn fired from the next "Guardians of the Galaxy" film by highlighting Gunn's old Twitter jokes about rape and pedophilia. But Cernovich himself has a long history online, filled with both successes and statements he has since distanced himself from -- for reasons that will be obvious.