The Trump administration used Charlie Kirk’s September assassination as an opportunity to declare war on the left, pledging to use the full force of the law to go after their ideological opponents.
That’s exactly what is now happening. As Josh Kovensky and John Light discussed on Substack Live Wednesday morning, Trump’s DOJ is making novel use of “material support for terrorism” charges against Black Lives Matter and anti-ICE protesters.
“It’s putting the cart before the horse,” Josh explains. “When you think about a criminal investigation, what you want is evidence of a crime, or evidence that a crime is being plotted, and for that to be stopped, or somebody need[ing] to be held accountable for that. The problem with NSPM-7, what’s happening now — and also with COINTELPRO, what they have in common — is that it gets that backwards. They are putting out markers for what they think will be a crime — in this case its anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity; back in the ‘60s it was membership in the communist party or the Black Panthers or certain civil rights movement organizations — and saying, Okay, we’re going to now try to disrupt them, try to go after them.”
“It’s not following the evidence that leads you towards a perpetrator. It’s saying, We know who the perpetrators are likely to be based off these ideological markers and then directing law enforcement to go after them with as much force as possible.”
Josh and John also delve into Trump’s controversial NSPM-7 memo, what “antifa” actually is, and the parallels between our current moment and “One Battle After Another.”
