Minnesota Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison defended his son pledging support for Antifa during an interview on CNN Monday, claiming it was a comment about the “absurdity of President Trump’s comment”.
This comes after Minneapolis City Councilman Jeremiah Ellison tweeted on Sunday that he was declaring his “support for ANTIFA.”
“I hereby declare, officially, my support for ANTIFA. Unless someone can prove to me ANTIFA is behind the burning of black and immigrant owned businesses in my ward, I’ll keep focusing on stopping the white power terrorist THE ARE ACTUALLY ATTACKING US!” Jeremiah Ellison tweeted.
He attached President Trump’s tweet, in which the president had announced: “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.”
“I think that was a comment about the absurdity of the president’s comment more than anything else,” Keith Ellison claimed, defending his son on CNN.
“We don’t see what the president is talking about, I don’t think the president sees what he’s talking about,” Ellison added. Continued Below
Minneapolis City Councilman Jeremiah Ellison’s official tweet:
I hereby declare, officially, my support for ANTIFA
Unless someone can prove to me ANTIFA is behind the burning of black and immigrant owned businesses in my ward, I’ll keep focusing on stopping the white power terrorist THE ARE ACTUALLY ATTACKING US! https://t.co/m6jxtDYmTi
— Jeremiah Ellison (@jeremiah4north) May 31, 2020
Minnesota Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison’s official remarks:
MN AG Keith Ellison responds to son's Antifa statement: "That was a comment about the absurdity of the President's comment more than anything else." pic.twitter.com/B72YCULcII
— The Hill (@thehill) June 1, 2020
In 2018, Ellison also tweeted support for Antifa, the group that many blame for the ongoing riots in Minneapolis and elsewhere following the killing of George Floyd last week.
The original tweet appears to have been deleted, but the internet doesn’t forget.
Ellison, who was then a congressman and the deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, tweeted after a visit to the Moon Palace Books shop in Minneapolis in January 2018: “At @MoonPalaceBooks and I just found the book that strike [sic] fear in the heart of @realDonaldTrump.” He attached a photo of himself holding the book Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook by Mark Bray.
