The Daily Signal - #512: ‘I Was in Fear of My Life’: Journalist Describes Antifa Attack, Group’s Goals

Episode Date: July 23, 2019

As the son of communist refugees, Andy Ngo is no stranger to the dangers of that political ideology. The Portland-based journalist, known for covering Antifa--the term used to describe anti-facists who generally wear masks and often are associated with violence and destruction--was hospitalized last month after being physically attacked by masked agitators.We also cover these stories:•The Justice Department is bringing back executions. •The governor of Puerto Rico resigns. •Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg thinks the Supreme Court should stay at nine justices.The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, July 26. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Daniel Davis. Andy Noe was all over the news recently after getting beat up by Antifa protesters in Portland, Oregon. No is a journalist for Quillette, who's covered Antifa extensively. Today, he joins Kate on the podcast for an exclusive interview about what happened to him in Portland and what he's learned about Antifa. By the way, if you're enjoying this podcast, please consider leaving a review or a five-star rating on iTunes and subscribe. subscribing. Now on to our top news. Well, the executive branch is getting back into executions.

The Justice Department announced on Thursday that it would resume capital punishment for the first time in 16 years. The government is now ordering the execution of five individuals on death row, all of whom were convicted of murdering children. Attorney General William Barr released a statement saying, quote, under administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair hearing. The Justice Department upholds the rule of law, and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system. That's the sound of cheering and fireworks in Puerto Rico via Reuters Nick Brown. Governor Ricardo

Rosseo, a Democrat, has announced he's stepping down after days of huge protests stirred by leaked communications. He will officially resign on August 2nd. Justice Secretary Wanda Vasquez is expected to succeed, Roseo, as the next governor. North Korea fired a new type of ballistic missile on Thursday in two launches, both of them landing in the sea. They were North Korea's first missile launches in over two months, and they come amid stalled negotiations with the U.S. over its nuclear program. North Korea is banned by the UN Security Council from launching any ballistic missiles. so it could face censure from the international community. Jeffrey Epstein, the millionaire facing sex trafficking charges,

including one related to a minor, was reportedly injured while in prison. CNN, not naming its sources, reports, quote, while Epstein told authorities he was beaten up and called a child predator, the sources said, he has been placed on suicide watch. His injuries were not serious, they said. End quote.

Epstein did plead not guilty. Well, Democrats have floated the eye. idea of packing the Supreme Court by increasing the number of justices, but one of the most liberal justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, doesn't like the idea. Here's what she said in a recent interview with NPR. There is no fixed number in the Constitution, so this court has had as few as five, as many as ten. Nine seems to be a good number, and it's been that way for a long time. She went on to add, I think it was a bad idea when President Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the court.

Next up, we'll feature our interview with Andy Noe, who was violently attacked by Antifa. If you're tired of high taxes, fewer health care choices, and bigger and bigger government, it's time to partner with the most impactful conservative organization in America. We're the Heritage Foundation, and we're committed to solving the issues America faces. Together, we'll fight back against the rising tide of homegrown socialism, and we'll fight for, conservative solutions that are making families more free and more prosperous. But we can't do it without you. Please join us at heritage.org.

Joining us today is Andy No. He's an editor at Quillette, host of the podcast, Things You Should Know, get it. And he went viral recently after he was physically attacked by Antifa in Portland and had to be hospitalized for brain hemorrhage. Andy, thanks for joining us. It's a pleasure to be with you. All right. So we're going to get into Antifa in that attack. I know our listeners are very interested in that. But first, I actually wanted to go a little bit further back and talk about your background. So your parents came to Portland, Oregon from Vietnam and they were escaping communism as refugees, is my understanding. Is that right? Yes. They were originally settled in different places, but they made their home in Portland. So I'm going to borrow the language of my detractors and talk a little bit. about my lived experience because it does inform how I cover Antifa.

And for the listeners who may not be familiar with what Antifa is, it's a militant movement made up of extreme anarchists and communists. And so my coverage of Antifa has been critical, not just critical of the hooliganism and the street violence, because violence, of course, is easy to condemn. I am critical of the underlying ideology as well. My parents lived through a Marxist revolution. Antifa is agitating for a revolution in this country.

My mother was just a teenager when she and her entire family, including very young siblings, were sent to labor camp. My father was sent to re-education camp. So that history and trauma, that my parents continue to carry with them is part of my story. And I don't have the luxury of viewing radical Marxist ideologies with the same rose-colored glasses as my peers do in Portland. And in Portland, as a political monoculture, you will see a more visible presence of open socialists and even communist than you would regular conservatives or Republicans.

So when you were growing up, did your parents, did your mom ever talk about the labor camp experience or your dad what the re-education camp was like? Much later. They gave me little vignettes as I was growing up, but I didn't have any context for it. I didn't understand the history. My mother, I think the most traumatic experience of post-1975, It's actually about, it sounds kind of silly saying this, but it's related to food, actually. So she came from a middle-class family in the South. And when she and her family were sent to the labor camp, the food that they were provided was so terrible that my mother was traumatized by it.

And I, you know, and I chuckle bit not because it's funny, but because of like it, I, as somebody who has had the privilege of being raised and born in the West, I don't know what it's like to not have food to eat. And then the food that you do get to eat is, I mean, my mother to this day doesn't eat pumpkin anymore. And pumpkin is a part of Southeast Asian cuisine. but she's just the type of food that she and her family were fed was boiled pumpkin with salt in the water. And so, you know, like when these little things growing up, I was just like, mom, why don't you like pumpkin pie or, I don't know, pumpkin curry, something like that.

You know, like I didn't have the context for understanding the political and social cultural history of my parents' experience That came much, much later, unfortunately. But I'm glad I had that knowledge because there are a lot of my peers who are second generation Vietnamese brought up in the West who are completely ignorant of how the diaspora ended up abroad. So to switch gears a little bit, you are often described as a right-wing journalist or conservative journalist, but how do you actually think of yourself? I didn't really see you describing yourself that way anywhere.

I don't necessarily take issue with the label conservative journalists, but I never particularly use that to describe myself. But I guess the values and principles that I have maybe align with issues that are either seen as centrist or center-right. So how did you get into journalism and when did you begin covering Antifa? I got into journalism actually when I started my graduate program at Portland State and ended up becoming on the multimedia editor of the student paper and covered very uninteresting

stories on campus, you know, this culture event, this dance night. what was then changed everything for me was after the election in 2016, we had very violent writing in downtown Portland, Portland State campuses in downtown. And I went out to record footage for the student paper. And this was the first time that I saw Antifa. Didn't know what black. block was. But it felt surreal to be in a major American city in downtown and seeing people dress head to toe in these black uniforms covering their faces and running around, starting fires in the streets, using bouts to destroy property. A million dollars in damage was done in one night. And that to me was like, wow, this is something we need to pay attention to. And then

since then, Portland has had reoccurring bouts of political violence on the street, almost to the point now where I say that political violence in Portland is a banality. And on the 29th of June is when I was beaten and robbed. by Antifa in the course of doing my work as a journalist. I record videos. I remember that day I was nervous because I had been targeted by Antifa in the months before. Things have been escalating.

They've hated my writings. Things changed a lot when I brought some attention to their extremism in very long. large publications like the Wall Street Journal. And me working on these projects as a freelance journalist, I don't have a team of professional security behind me. I'm just one individual. So I was an easy target.

So I was walking towards the front of their demonstration, and they were chanting no hate, no fear. And it was a combination of anti-far black block and then their allies in the Democratic Socialists of America. And actually, could you explain what is the Antifa BlackBlock? Black Block is a tactic that Antifa and other militant movements use where they adopt essentially a uniform of wearing black clothing, long sleeve, and masks and sunglasses. So they're completely anonymized for a number of reasons.

One, it's so that they can easily melt into the crowd when some of the people, then engage in criminal activities such as violence against individuals or property destruction. And they, Antifa is very hostile to media, particularly media that records because they don't want any of this footage to potentially identify them. And, you know, me just being there with the camera was seen as provocation, but more problematic was my ideas that were critical of what they believe in. Shall I continue? Yes, go on.

So what happened at the rally? Yeah, on the 29th of June, while listening to these demonstrators, no hate, no fear, I was bashed in the back of the head very hard. It knocked me forward. And when it happened, it took me a few seconds to realize what had happened.

I've never been in a fight. I don't know how to fight, never been hit in the face or head. I thought maybe somebody had tripped and just fallen to me really hard. Before I could gather my balance, then the punches kept coming from every direction, the front, the back, and they were going for my head and my eyes and my face. And were you on the ground at this point? No, I was still standing, but I was kicked as well in the groin and I was knocked down to one knee. I was just, I was determined to like, I didn't know which direction was out.

but I was like it's not a good idea to turn up on the ground because at that point it was obvious. This was a mob beating. And when I thought that they were done, they weren't. I had my hands up to show this crowd that I was surrendering, essentially. They beat me so hard. I lost control of my hands, and they robbed me of my GoPro, which I was really trying to hold on to because it was my evidence of this attack.

But that was taken. And then the mob started throwing milkshakes, other liquids, eggs, and other hard objects at my face and my head. So that, and that literally blinded me for the moment. And this is my issue with what, with the... those who work in mainstream media who think milkshaking is a cute form of political dissent. It's not. It literally marks you out for a mob to target you as what happened to me. So the video that's gone viral, that's the second half of the attack.

There were more punches. Even though we were steps away from the central police precinct and the sheriff's office, at no point did I ever receive help from police. And what were you thinking, especially if you had never been in a fight? I might be projecting here because I'm a total coward, but were you afraid for your life at all? I mean, what was going through your mind? I think by like this fifth and sixth hit to my head and face, I wasn't fear of my life. Because I was kept thinking, okay, the last punch was the last one, but it kept coming.

And, you know, the people who beat me when I was. not just punching me with their hands. I have to make sure your listeners know that they were wearing tactical gloves that have hardened fiberglass materials on the knuckles. So it's like getting hit with, almost like getting hit with bricks. And so after that, an ambulance was called for me and I was taking to the ER. And so I had all these abrasions. on my head and contusions all over, they did a CT scan, which confirmed the, gave the diagnosis of the subarachnoid hemorrhage, also known as a brain bleed. And since then, while the bruising and cuts have mostly healed, I'm going to continue to have some neurological challenges for the coming

months. And that's... Are you comfortable discussing it all what those challenges are? Yeah. If you watch any one of my interviews at various times, depending on if it's edited or out not, you will see that I am unable to finish certain sentences. So I have these, I call them, I guess, cognitive hiccups where I just, I can't finish the sentence or I don't recall a very common word. And so it's memory issues. And this was really scary to be confronted with.

I think, you know, I remember when I was in the ER and, you know, I didn't know the extent of my injuries. I was, I was considered, I was like, am I going to have scarring all over my face? Like, and that's, you know, pales completely in comparison to a brain injury. Yeah. Very scary. So what was the police response, both during the attack and afterwards? There was none during the attack. And you asked me, what was I thinking? I was thinking at any point, police are going to come in and take me out and help me.

That never happened. I could actually, in the beginning parts of the beating, still see the Justice Center, which is the building that houses the central police precinct. and Portland's issues, there are a number of variables that have made Portland this hotbed of far-left militant violence in that the city is a political monoculture, progressive monoculture, and anti-police sentiment is the norm. So you have that as a variable. Another is that the mayor who is up for re-election also doubles as a police commissioner. So you can see the potential for conflict of interest. After my beating on the 29th of June, and I wasn't only when injured, there were other very severe injuries because after I was beat, I believe I was the first person who was beaten after that the rioting continued in another part of downtown where militants used weapons such as,

a crowbar. So this happens, it's on my perception that there's systemic issues in policing and governance. And the head of the police union issued a statement after the 29th of June calling for the mayor to remove the handcuffs of police. It does seem like there are standout orders in some form. maybe not in the literal command, but limiting resources for that day, even though Antifa projects and announces their plans for physical confrontation, also known as premeditated violence. We've been dealing with this over and over and over for several years now in Portland,

and really nothing has changed. Every few months, another citizen, this time, was myself before it was an elderly driver. There's been one person who happened to bring American flag to demonstration. It's just like, does somebody have to die before something changes? And, you know, I get asked sometimes by those who are on the left, they'll bring up the point. Well, Antifa hasn't killed anybody, whereas, you know, in Charlottesville, somebody was murdered. Do we have to wait for there to be like parity before we start caring?

And actually, that's not even true anymore. Just a week and a half ago, an antifamilitant in Tacoma, Washington, which is not far from Portland, firebombed a government facility, and attempted to ignite a 500-gallon propane tank and came with a rifle and got killed in the process. And he left the manifesto. And the manifesto very clearly outlines his ideology, calling for his comrades to take up arms. He borrows language seemingly taken from a person in Congress. And this wasn't headline news. And I was shocked.

It was just like there's just so much ignorance about what Antifa is. You know, like I think from a distance, you can watch the videos of the street hooliganism and find it almost comical to be there, to have it directed at yourself, and to be familiar with what they're actually agitating for. It is a scary and dangerous ideology and movement. And I think the mainstream media based all the way in D.C. or New York City are just unaware. And they just think that these are noble anti-fascists who are fighting. Nazis on the street. That's not what's happening. It's interesting. You mentioned that because, of course, yes,

there is this perception among mainstream media that, oh, conservative media is obsessed with Antifa, but it's just a weird obsession and shouldn't be covered. And similar to you, I wasn't actually there when Antifa or believed to be Antifa took action in D.C. after Trump's inauguration,

but I remember seeing the photos roll in. And I was like, oh, my gosh, there's people burning cars in downtown D.C. This is insane. And I I couldn't believe how little coverage it got. So you've spent years covering Antifa. What would you, I mean, why do you think they're newsworthy? And what do you think their goal is?

Their stated goal, they're quite open about it. If you speak to their ideologues or read the writings of their ideologues, is revolution. And it's a particular, their political ideology is anarcho-communism. So some are more anarchists and others, some are more communists and others. they believe that the United States is an irredeemable country, literally irredeemable. And the targeting of police as well as border enforcement, as well as even the concept of sovereignty, is all strategic towards their goal. The violence on the streets is meant to polarize citizens against each other, as well as to, in the case of Portland,

to break down the trust in law enforcement, and that's happened as well, among those on the left and on the right. Of course, the United States has such strong institutions that they're not going to achieve an ANTFA revolution. No, I'm not one of those people who are coming out and saying that, you know, this is a existential threat. However, where there are a threat is that they've been able and are able to mainstream and normalize aspects of their ideology and tactics. For example, I brought up the normalization of political violence earlier, and that's something I think they have had much success on when, Punch a Nazi became acute meme that had quite widespread support. And on principle, some people might not feel, I mean, it's understandably, you know, who wants to be sympathetic for, you know, literal neo-Nazi.

But then what happens next is Antifa applies to the label of Far Right or Nazi or a fascist. Very carelessly. They've applied it to me in materials that they're. they put out naming me, for example, and others who are categorically not far right or fascist or Nazis. More recently, it's the milkshaking thing, even in respectable publications, describing it as a nonviolent form of political dissent. And the milkshaking, to be clear, is when people throw, I guess, an actual milkshake. I know the Portland police said they had seen cement, but you haven't seen that, right? That was a tweet that was,

put out about Portland Police, there was a lieutenant who observed material in a cup that he said the consistency and the smell was consistent with acostic material similar to quick dry cement. However, the Portland Police did not keep that cup as evidence to test it. So this has been to the date unconfirmed. And it's been used sort of as a red herring to throw off the conversation. I mean, milkshakes tainted or not. the point of it is to mark you for a mobbing, essentially. And, you know, when I look at the, watch the videos over and over of what happened to me and see the pictures, it's very humiliating.

But at the same time, I've been forcing myself to continue to do all these media engagements because I want the public to see the brutality of this movement and to rest. recognize that they've been buying into a false narrative of this being a noble anti-fascist group of people. It's not they're indiscriminate. They can be very indiscriminate in their violence. They believe they're part of a vanguard that will overthrow the government. Like, this is a very extreme ideology. And I'm not sure if people like Chris Cuomo or Don Lamont at CNN know this when they basically act as apologists for anti-fascar. I would hope that with me continuing to speak out that the needle on this discourse can change. I didn't ask to be such a public figure.

I mean, three weeks ago, I was the person behind the camera and the person who's doing the writing. Now I've been doing all this public speaking. And I mean, the next part for me now is I want justice. Justice through the legal system. I don't want to fight anybody, but three and a half weeks after what happened to me, there's been no arrests. And I don't want to be cynical about Portland police, but there were four ongoing investigations of antifa violence to me and doxing before the 29th of June, and nothing was done. So I guess, forgive me if I'm not entirely confident that they're going to do a thorough criminal. investigation. Of course, another issue that compounds all this is that the militants who beat me

and robbed me were amassed. Right. So you mentioned, though, that you might be able to take legal action. Could you expand on that? I think my civil rights were violated. My First Amendment rights. I was a journalist documenting event, and Antifa has continuously menace, not menace and attack not just myself, but others, other journalists in Portland as well. The citizen journalists, the independent journalists are the easy targets, right? But they've also gone after reporters who work for the local broadcast television news. I, unfortunately, am not the right type of victim for the legacy civil rights organizations, such as the ACLU or the SPLC, neither of which, as far as I know, have said anything in support

me or condemned what happened to me. And actually the human rights campaign, which is America's largest gay rights organization, their communication staffer in the immediate aftermath of my beating put out a number of tweets calling me, quote, unquote, a weasel, and that I came looking for this and got exactly what I wanted. So without stated, fortunately, I've been. taken on as the first client for Publius Lex. That's a civil rights nonprofit started by attorney Harmeet Dillon.

I have so much gratitude for that because, I mean, I completely underestimated the amount of money and time it takes to get counsel and do potentially discovery and finding evidence and all that. And so there's a legal fund. And even with the attorney working for free, there's so much overhead cost. There's so much, you know, just cost related to going through the legal system. So how can people donate to that fund if they're interested? Yeah, so Publiuslex.com, P-U-B-L-I-U-S-L-L-E-X dot com. Anything really helps.

I mean, the amazing thing about the age where now is you can crowd fund a legal funding, I mean, there's so many people who I'm so, I feel so thankful that they, they see what happened to me as an injustice and not just me as an individual, but rather emblematic of some other larger systemic issues are in Portland. So that's what the legal fund is for, you know, those who are, it's amazing to me that those who are on, the left seems to have all this endless money for lawfare. And I would like to see conservatives start investing funds in causes for civil rights. Well, Andy Nowe, thank you so much for joining us. My pleasure. Well, that is a good place for us to leave it.

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