POLITIFACT Falsely Claims "There’s no proof Antifa stormed the Capitol"

Image: Win McNamee/Getty Images

In a recent POLITIFACT article titled "There’s no proof Antifa stormed the Capitol. The rumor spread quickly anyway", authors Daniel Funke and Bill McCarthy falsely claim that several prominent public figures made false claims regarding the events that took place at the Capitol building on January 6th, 2021 in Washington DC.

The article claims that public figures including Paul Gosar, Sarah Palin, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, Lin Wood, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Kevin McCullough, Texas Attorney General Paul Paxton, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, and radio personality Rush Limbaugh, falsely asserted the plausibility of Antifa or non-Trump supporters being present at, or participating in the breach of, the Capitol building.

Despite multiple claims of this plausibility, the authors premised their opinions on various things including an update regarding a January 8th press conference when FBI assistant director Steven D’Antuono said the agency has "no indication" that Antifa was involved in the event.

This does not take into account the statement did not confirm or deny any potential involvement in the breach of the Capitol building or that fact that saying "no indication" doesn't mean they do not have any proof.

In fact, if the FBI has conclusive evidence that Antifa activists did breach the Capitol building, they can still say honestly, and accurately, that they have "no indication". If they have "proof" then they accurately do not have "indication", they have "proof".

The article states one premise to be:

A crowd of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, wearing and waving Trump-branded paraphernalia and flags as they sought to overturn the election.

However, the attire of an individual does not accurately identify an individuals relation to anything. It only means that an individual is wearing attire.

The article goes on to imply:

There is no credible evidence that the crowd was infiltrated or led by Antifa activists in disguise. Specific individuals held up online as Antifa activists turned out to be Trump supporters.

They fail to accurately summarize John Sullivan, founder of Insurgence USA, who was indeed inside the Capitol building. If Sullivan was inside the Capitol building, then Sullivan breached the Capitol building. It is as simple as that.

POLITIFACT states:

An activist who said he joined the mob solely to document what happened was accused online of being Antifa-aligned and inciting the insurrection. He denied any antifa affiliation, although he has posted related hashtags. But he was one person among thousands. There’s no evidence that he "incited" the violence himself or led the charge into the Capitol.

First of all, this only states he did not "incite" any violence, but the articles headline insinuates that nobody "went into" the Capitol building.

Moreover, Mr. Sullivan, who posted videos from January 6th on his social media accounts (and quickly then removed them) can be heard inciting the crowd of people just before the police line breach yelling "Let's go!".

In other places he can be heard yelling and encouraging other activities such as "burn it down".

In another video where he is walking through the hallways looking around inside the Capitol building, he says "this is what we need to burn down" apparently to another person close by, which may have been a freelance photojournalist named Jade Slacker who he was seen with during a CNN interview when he claimed to have only been "documenting" the event.

CNN did appear to hold him up as a journalist of some sort.

Courtesy CNN

While Jade Slacker is indeed a photojournalist who has worked for CNN, John Sullivan, however, is not and is known to be an Antifa and anti-Trump activist. Notably, his organization is named Insurgence USA.

Finally, POLITIFACT states that:

Trump had encouraged his supporters to come to Washington to protest the election. He spoke at a rally hours before the violence erupted and urged those in attendance to march to Congress.

Insinuating that this in some way indicates no anti-Trump activist could have plausibly been in attendance.

POLITIFACT has made 11 false claims in stating that these assertions of non-Trump supporter involvement was a false claim. They are either backed with no evidence, or cannot be proven otherwise.

POLITIFACT has also made a false claim that there is no proof Antifa stormed the Capitol. Then provided proof that John Sullivan, who claims to be an Antifa activist, was present.

POLITIFACT has also made a false claim that an Antifa activist did not "incite" violence since he (Sullivan) can be clearly heard yelling otherwise.

We do not claim there was or was not involvement of any kind, with the exception of John Sullivan and possibly Jade Slacker, who do appear to be at least present inside the Capitol building and Sullivan appears to have made some inciting vocals suggestions.

We are not alleging any guilt of Sullivan, we are stating the fact that video evidence indicates John Sullivan was present at, breached, and made suspicious comments during the Capitol building siege.

POLITIFACT did make two correct claims in debunking social media posts alleging Antifa activists who were actually a neo-Nazi and a QAnon activist.

Summary

POLITIFACT has made 12 false claims that assertions of non-Trump supporters being involved with the Capitol building siege were false claims. There is clear evidence that this is inaccurate.

Claim: "There’s no proof Antifa stormed the Capitol"

Fact Check Verdict: 12 FALSE FACT CHECKS 2 ACCURATE FACT CHECKS

Claimant: POLITIFACT