Video file

Citation From the June 3, 2020, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Why does antifa target college students?

CABOT PHILLIPS (EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, CAMPUS REFORM): Well, college campuses are the perfect place for antifa to recruit because of a few things. First off, what's going on in the classroom? They know that classrooms are places that are inundating with these anti-capitalist, anti-cop, and anti-conservative messages, and so students are more receptive to that kind of extreme rhetoric when they hear it from people who that in antifa already. The other element is young people are more likely to feel invincible, they want to get involved, they want to do crazy things and think nothing will happen to them, and they think there are no consequences. And sadly, many times they're right; there aren't consequences when they engage in political violence.

And also there's an element of their social justice mindset of wanting to earn credentials with their peers by doing the craziest things possible and showing that, you know, the more violent and more intimidating their protests are, the more woke they are and the more committed to the cause they are. And so antifa has been given free rein on college campuses for too long to recruit. We've reported at Leadership Institute at Campus Reform that they have gone on completely unabated by universities and they've had a free reign to grow their movement on campus. And we know that what happens on college campuses inevitably bleeds out in society, and that's what we are seeing this week with these organized riots around the country. These didn't just spring up. They are being led by members of antifa, and sadly they've had too long to grow on college campuses. 

EARHARDT: I know years ago, you said it was time to take antifa seriously. What was it that made you have that perspective?

PHILLIPS: Well, we have been blowing the whistle for years on this. Thankfully networks like yours at Fox have been covering it.

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They are organized, they are growing, and they do not care about all the ideals we hold dear in America. They don't care about free speech. They care about intimidation and violence to get what they want. And I have seen that growing, I’ve seen it around the country and that's why I think more Americans need to wake up to this. This isn't some, you know, group of goofy college students. This is a serious threat. And the president was right to call them domestic terrorists because the definition of terrorism is using violence and intimidation to achieve political goals. That is what they are doing and they’re very open about it and they're proud of that fact.