"The View" host Whoopi Goldberg suggested Friday that maybe the growing recognition of "antifa" is the result of conservatives turing it into a "catch phrase."
When co-host Paula Faris pointed out that even President Barack Obama's Department of Homeland Security and FBI warned about antifa groups, Goldberg protested that the report was flawed.
Goldberg questioned the report's validity because it dated back to the Obama years when there were no large fascist demonstrations she could remember.
"When we look to see what they were talking about, there was nothing there," she said. "We went to see what they had been protesting, what fascist stuff antifa had been protesting – there's nothing there. We can't find anything."
"Antifa is one of those things – I don't want to say they're right – but someone came up with as a catch phrase so you could say, 'there's violence on the other side,'" Goldberg said.
Goldberg suggested later in the discussion that the people who were complaining loudest about antifa might be the people who were actually behind the group's creation.
"Oftentimes I found that sometimes the side that is kvetching the loudest has sort of orchestrated this so they can bitch about it," Goldberg said.
"I'm not sure who was storming through the streets. I'm not sure who was storming through the streets," she said in reference to protests.
Antifa, "anti-fascist," members purport violence is acceptable to combat what they consider "fascism," and they therefore often cover their faces in order to avoid recognition by authorities. The group has gained attention in recent months following members' role in violent protests around the country.