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Fact check: Quote attributed to Joe Biden about antifa is missing context

The claim: Joe Biden said 'Antifa is an idea, not an organization'

Of the many quotable statements from the first presidential debate on Tuesday, Sept. 29, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's assertion about the anti-fascist movement antifa was especially memorable.

"His own FBI director said ... antifa is an idea, not an organization," Biden said, referring to President Donald Trump and FBI Director Chris Wray.

The comment was prompted by debate moderator Chris Wallace's question to Trump about his willingness to condemn white supremacists and militia groups.

"Who would you like me to condemn?" Trump asked.

"The Proud Boys," Biden said.

The Proud Boys have been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of its white supremacist and anti-Muslim sentiments.

​"Proud Boys – stand back and stand by," Trump said, according to USA TODAY. "But I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left."

Before the debate ended, Biden's statement about antifa found its way to social media.

"'A quote from joe biden 'Antifa is an idea not an organization,'" a Facebook user posted on Sept. 29.

USA TODAY reached out to the user for comment.

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Did Biden borrow a quote from the director of the FBI?

In September, Wray testified before Congress about possible foreign interference in the 2020 presidential election, USA TODAY reported. Trump nominated Wray in 2017 after firing former director James Comey.

Wray's testimony also touched on incidents of violence amid social justice protests throughout the country.

He told lawmakers the FBI is investigating violent extremists on both ends of the ideological spectrum -- from antifa on the far left to militia and supremacist groups on the far right, according to USA TODAY.

But Wray stopped short of labeling antifa an organization.

“(Antifa is) not a group or an organization. It’s a movement or an ideology,” Wray said, according to the Associated Press.

Antifa, which is short for "antifascist," gained prominence after the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

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What is antifa?

Shortly after Wray's testimony, Trump disputed the FBI director's comments about antifa on Twitter.

In a tweet, the president said the movement is made up of "well funded anarchists & thugs."

In May, Trump tweeted the U.S. will designate antifa a terrorist organization, and was still promising his administration would do so as of Sept. 25.

But according to a June brief by the Center for Strategic & International Studies, the most significant domestic terror threat likely comes from white supremacists. The center found that right-wing extremists perpetuated over 90% of attacks and plots on U.S. soil from Jan. 1 to May 8, 2020.

The Department of Homeland Security assessed that white supremacist extremists pose "the most persistent and lethal threat" to the United States, according to a draft report by the agency. Senior Brookings Institute fellow Benjamin Wittes posted scans of the report to his Twitter account on Sept. 4. In a September 2019 report, DHS called "White supremacist violent extremism ... one of the most potent forces driving domestic terrorism."

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Our rating: Missing Context

We rate this claim MISSING CONTEXT, based on our research. The initial claim attributed a statement characterizing anti-fascist movement antifa as an idea, not a movement, to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Biden appropriately credited the statement to FBI Director Chris Wray, but the claim did not.

Our fact-check sources:

Contributed: The Associated Press

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Quote attributed to Biden about antifa is missing context