Marco Rubio, a Florida Senator who cheers for civil rights protests in other countries but just not in the U.S., decided to share “an interesting and timely” video claiming to “expose” the inner workings of antifa, a non-existent organization the Trump Administration wants to deem “domestic terrorists.”
“Interesting & timely uncover expose on #Antifa, a violent movement some continue to deny exists,” tweeted Rubio this afternoon, with zero self-reflection or notes of irony.
Interesting & timely uncover expose on #Antifa, a violent movement some continue to deny exists. https://t.co/7bIEqWyT6b
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) June 4, 2020
The video, which was published Thursday, was created by James O’Keefe’s widely discredited right wing attack group Project Veritas, which has a long history of incredibly fake stories. Remember when they tried to plant a fake story at the Washington Post, and then proceeded to dunk on themselves? Or the time they claimed to have "exposed CNN," by getting a former contractor to secretly film a happy hour with an intern, and playing recordings from CNN president Jeff Zucker saying bombshells like "Let's focus on Trump's impeachment."
Like O'Keefe's past works, the new Project Veritas video has quite a few intensely stupid things about it, but one of the worst is the fact they claim a bookstore that was once parodied in Portlandia is now used as the headquarters for the Portland antifa.
As the Daily Dot points out, the video says the antifa meetings were held before business hours at Other Words Bookstore in Portland, which is weird because it closed in 2018. The film also seems to be purposely vague about its timeline, when it was filmed, or even how long the reporter was undercover. All of which is pretty important since the film suggests antifa is funded by some giant, international cabal.
Also, never mind the fact that O’Keefe himself has a criminal history that certainly rivals any antifa record.
Of course, none of these important details seems to matter to Rubio, or major right wing outlets like Fox News, who’ve all shared it without asking any questions.
But thankfully, at least there's already a decent parody:
WOW is this TRUE???#EXPOSEANTIFA pic.twitter.com/itdJfI8Nlp
— Citizen Shane (@ShaneSheehy) June 4, 2020
This story originally appeared in our sister paper Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
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