Top FBI agent embarrasses himself trying to talk about antifa

A top FBI agent utterly embarrassed himself in front of the US House Committee during a hearing on homeland security. He tried to claim that the data supports the assertion that Antifa is top domestic terror threat in the US. However, when questioned, he couldn’t answer even the most basic questions on the organisation.

The FBI agent in question is Michael Glasheen (MG). He’s currently acting as the operations director for the bureau’s National Security Branch. In a clip shared widely across social media, his interlocutor was Bennie Thompson (BT), the House Homeland Security committee’s ranking chairman.

You can watch the video on any number of left-aligned Twitter, Instagram, BlueSky etc accounts with even a vague interest in left-wing politics, because it’s as hilarious as it is damning. Like here for example:

GLASHEEN: Antifa is our primary concern right now. That's the most immediate violent threat we're facing

BENNIE THOMPSON: Where is antifa headquartered?

GLASHEEN: … … … we are building out the infrastructure right now

THOMPSON: What does that mean? pic.twitter.com/FBzRJ5dCBj

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 11, 2025

‘Our primary concern’

The clip begins:

MG: The domestic terrorist organisation Antifa, that’s our primary concern right now.

BT: Alright, that’s what president Trump did. What does the FBI say?

Trump has made an enemy of antifa for some years now. This makes sense, given that A/ Trump is a fascist, and B/ antifa opposes fascism. He finally seized the moment to designate them a “major terrorist organisation” after the murder of far-right podcaster Charlie Kirk earlier this year.

In a speech shortly after the shooting, Trump declared:

Radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.

There is no evidence to connect the Charlie Kirk shooter to antifa. Likewise, there has only been one murder ostensibly linked to Antifa, although the organisation has no formal membership structure.

The US Department of Justice’s (DoJ) own data from 2024 supports the conclusion that far-right extremism is a greater threat than “all other types of violent extremism”. However, the DoJ has since hidden this study from its website.

‘Look at the data’

Anyway, back to the fascism at hand. Regarding Thompson’s question on the FBI’s views, Glasheen answered:

We share the same view. When you look at the data right now, you look at the domestic terrorist threat that we’re facing, right now what I see, from my position, is that’s the most immediate violent threat that we are facing on the domestic side.

Hooo buddy. I bet when you said ‘look at the data’, you wanted to sound very competent and informed, didn’t you? Unfortunately, that trick only works up until somebody says ‘ok, what data’?

So, obviously, Thompson asked for some nice, simple, concrete facts:

BT: So where in the United States does Antifa exist, if it’s a terrorist organisation and you’ve identified it as number one?

MG: We’re building up the infrastructure right now.

BT: So what does that mean?

What does that even mean?! If you actually wanted to sound like the FBI is making up a left-wing terrorist threat on the fly, it’d be difficult to pick a better answer than ‘we’re building up the infrastructure’.

Maybe Glasheen was aiming for ‘we’re building up a picture of the infrastructure’. Even that would be an embarrassment, of course. He just said ‘look at the data’, so then immediately saying ‘we’re still gathering the data’ would look terrible. Not as bad as ‘we’re currently fabricating the data’, mind you – but still.

‘How did you come to that?’

Maybe asking for the headquarters of a decentralised organisation was too mean though. Maybe Glasheen has other concrete facts to illuminate the committee with, and Antifa simply lacks a brick-and-mortar terrorist storefront. Real estate is getting pricey, after all.

Anyway, let’s find out:

BT: You say antifa is a terrorist organisation. Tell us, as a committee, how did you come to that? Where do they exist? How many members do they have in the United States, as of right now?

MG: Well it’s very fluid, it’s ongoing for us to understand that, the same… no different than Al-Qaeda and Isis.

So, no data at all then. That was painfully predictable, wasn’t it?

Bennie Thompson finished up by absolutely dropping the mic on the FBI director:

Son, you wouldn’t come to this committee and say something that you can’t prove. I know you wouldn’t do that…. But you did.

If somebody pointed out that I was that goddamn terrible at my job, on the record, on camera, I don’t think I’d ever be able to show my face in public again.

But that’s the problem, isn’t it? None of the fascist goons under Trump believe more than half of what they say. They know they’re lying through their teeth and actively fabricating phantom left-wing threats to further their own agenda. It’s just not stopping them from doing it anyway.

What’s more, their political opponents know that they’re lying through their teeth. However, the Democrats (even the more moderate Republicans) are woefully under-prepared or unwilling to prevent the fascist movement that’s unfolding in front of their eyes.

Anti-fascism is not a threat to the USA, or the world. Fascism is the threat – and Trump and his minions have conjured the convenient phantom of Antifa in order to designate any protest or direct action opposing them as a terrorist threat. Wait, this sounds very familiar – where have we described that playbook before…

Featured image via X/Aaron Rupar