CNN’s chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin raised a few eyebrows Wednesday when he claimed that Antifa — the violent “anti-fascist” group responsible for a number of destructive protests and counter-protests nationwide — was “widely perceived as an African American organization.”

Toobin was responding to President Donald Trump’s claims, made during a White House dinner for evangelical leaders, that a shift in power in Congress could lead to violence. Naming Antifa directly, the president added, “The level of hatred — the level of anger — is unbelievable.”

But according to Toobin, the real problem is not the many documented instances of violence perpetrated by Antifa, but the “racism” of the president. “Let’s be clear also about what is going on here,” he said. “The theme here is, ‘I’m Donald Trump and I’ll protect you from the scary, black people.'”

But then Toobin took it a step further, saying, “Antifa is widely perceived as an African-American organization, and this is just part of the same story of Lebron James and Don Lemon and Maxine Waters and the NFL players and the UCLA basketball players. This is about black versus white. This is about Donald Trump’s appeal to racism and it just happens all the time. We never say it — we don’t say it enough for what it is, but that’s what is going on here.”

The response to Toobin’s assessment suggested that Antifa being an “African American organization” was not as “widely perceived” as he may have thought.

This is literally @CNN being HORRIBLY RACIST. Blaming black Americans for crimes that an ALL-WHITE gang commits—why? Because white Democrats are incapable of violence, and only black democrats are? UNBELIEVABLY RACIST @JeffreyToobin. ANTIFA has nothing to do with the blacks. https://t.co/Eib9bXd9NB — Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) August 29, 2018

Antifa belongs on the list of “Stuff White People Like” https://t.co/P9nGp63cTY — Jamie Kirchick (@jkirchick) August 29, 2018

Also, Toobin claims that “Antifa is widely perceived as an African-American organization.” I don’t know anyone who makes this claim, nor is it anecdotally supported. Has he seen a single Antifa demonstration in the last two years? https://t.co/WsuXofMcqJ — Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) August 29, 2018

These are the Berkeley mugshots pic.twitter.com/xkDJWmWUZ9 — Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) August 29, 2018

I’m guessing Jeffrey Toobin hasn’t been to any Antifa get togethers. They’re mostly spoiled white rich kids. — Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) August 29, 2018

Wtf? Since when did Antifa become a black organization? Most of the Antifa people I ran into were white lol. In fact they were yelling at black security guards half the time https://t.co/2fuyRPm9s0 — Pardes Seleh (@PardesSeleh) August 29, 2018

Antifa is whiter than Pat Boone making a mayonnaise sandwich with Wonder bread in a Minnesota snowstorm https://t.co/VQxX9ZG09I — Cameron Gray (@Cameron_Gray) August 29, 2018

Berkeley police arrested masked Antifa protesters on Sunday and have released their names and headshots. They’re furious that their identities have been made known. Let’s make them famous. pic.twitter.com/PInDhzwaD3 — Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) August 8, 2018

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