Rubio's 60-Nation Antifa Meeting Draws Allied Pushback as Europe Questions Far-Left Terror Threat
Updated
Updated · The Daily Beast · Jul 9
Rubio's 60-Nation Antifa Meeting Draws Allied Pushback as Europe Questions Far-Left Terror Threat
2 articles · Updated · The Daily Beast · Jul 9
Summary
More than 60 countries were invited to Rubio's July 16 State Department meeting on the alleged resurgence of transnational far-left terrorism, but several European governments signaled their ministers were unlikely to attend.
Last week's invitation gave little notice and vague objectives, while diplomats said antifa is not a priority threat in their countries and some questioned why they were invited at all.
The poor response follows two earlier administration efforts that also fizzled — a late-May meeting in the Netherlands and an early-June Washington gathering described as a dud.
Inside the U.S. government, intelligence analysts and some Justice Department, White House counsel and State officials have resisted the push, with some skipping the event and warning the threat framing is overstated.
Sebastian Gorka and Stephen Miller have backed exploring a foreign-terrorist designation for antifa, but experts say that would be legally dubious and risk politicizing counterterrorism tools against Americans.