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<\/a><\/p>\nA challenger to Paul Ryan in the Republican primary<\/a>\u00a0contends\u00a0the speaker is betraying the GOP grassroots by failing to forcefully condemn \u201cAntifa.\u201d<\/p>\n Ryan recently\u00a0criticized the president by proclaiming \u201cthere are no sides\u201d<\/a>\u00a0when it comes to the\u00a0recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.<\/a><\/p>\n Businessman Paul Nehlen said\u00a0Ryan\u00a0could not bring himself to criticize the militant leftists known as \u201cAntifa\u201d<\/a>\u00a0who had instigated the violence in Charlottesville.<\/p>\n \u201cPaul Ryan is a coward,\u201d said\u00a0Nehlen,\u00a0author of the new book \u201cWage The Battle.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u201cWhat he is doing is working to further divide the country so that he can keep his hands on the levers of power. People aren\u2019t buying what Ryan is selling in terms of this fake narrative that there is only one side to the violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Nehlen argues the populist wave in American politics has yet to crest and, as shown by the rise of both Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders, is deeply affecting both parties. Whichever party can capitalize on these sentiments, he believes, will succeed.<\/p>\n However, instead of appealing to populist sentiments on issues such as trade and immigration, the GOP leadership has attempted to crush the grassroots of its own party, even if it means siding with militant leftists against Trump, Nehlen said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe establishment on both sides of the aisle are scared to death of the populist supporters of President Trump and Bernie Sanders,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat the liberal media and the establishment Republicans were attempting to do to economic nationalists was smear and tarnish them with labels such as racist and supremacist, when in fact the group has simply rejected the failed globalist orthodoxy. And now, in order to keep their hands on the levers of power, the so-called GOP leadership has made the craven and calculated decision to stand with Antifa against the populist uprising in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, Antifa attacked Trump supporters attending the president\u2019s Tuesday night rally in Phoenix. Police were forced to use tear gas after protesters threw projectiles at law enforcement.<\/p>\n Video footage also showed Antifa attacking Trump supporters attempting to leave the venue in a pickup truck. Reuters\u00a0drew criticism by describing the violent protesters as \u201cpeace activists.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s rally also featured Trump condemning Antifa by name.<\/p>\n Nehlen argued Ryan should be willing to do the same and rejected the argument that denouncing only the \u201cfar right\u201d would give Ryan some kind of moral righteousness.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rational majority of America rejects this phony \u2018moral high ground\u2019 argument,\u201d he told WND. \u201cWe choose the factual high ground. Antifa are far worse inasmuch as their violence is PC sanctioned by the liberal media, the pseudo-intelligencia on college campuses, and the D.C. globalists, including Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, Bill Kristol and so many others.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Ryan, Romney, along with other establishment Republicans such as Mitch McConnell and John Kasich,\u00a0have placed all the blame for political violence on the \u201cfar right\u201d while ignoring Antifa entirely.<\/a><\/p>\n However, Nehlen sees signs of hope in the president\u2019s denunciation of the violent group. He noted\u00a0more than 200,000 Americans have signed a petition calling on the president to recognize Antifa as a terrorist group.<\/a><\/p>\n He also argued Antifa\u2019s repeated attacks on ordinary Republicans and Trump supporters, not just the \u201cfar right,\u201d is awakening Republicans to the threat the group represents.<\/p>\n But as Nehlen observed, despite their radical tactics and stated beliefs, the Antifa agenda is largely in agreement with the politically correct beliefs of most corporate leaders, professors and journalists.\u00a0Along with Antifa, many of these elites have urged restrictions on free speech following the violence in Charlottesville.<\/a><\/p>\n For that reason, Nehlen said it is more important than ever for Republicans to have leaders who will fight for Americans\u2019 constitutional rights. And he is outraged that\u00a0Ryan had urged restrictions on Second Amendment rights in response to Charlottesville, even though no fatalities or injuries resulted from firearms at the event.<\/p>\n In response to a question about the\u00a02012 Sikh temple shooting,<\/a>\u00a0Ryan recently suggested on CNN he would implement a form of gun control which would strip Second Amendment rights even from those merely accused of a crime.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to do a better job of making sure that criminals don\u2019t get guns or that people who are suspected of terrorism \u2013 like domestic terrorism \u2013 don\u2019t get guns,\u201d\u00a0Ryan said.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cJust like we saw \u2026 Heather Heyer was killed by an act of domestic terrorism. This fits into that category, so I think we have to do a better job of making sure that terrorists not get guns.\u201d<\/p>\n Nehlen said this is typical of a supposed GOP leader who seems to go out of his way to attack both fellow Republicans and conservative principles.<\/p>\n \u201cPaul Ryan took a question about someone who is a diagnosed schizophrenic who\u2019d been prescribed antipsychotic medication and who plowed into a crowd with a car and made it a referendum on guns,\u201d Nehlen fumed. \u201cPaul Ryan conspired with CNN to select who was in that room along with approving what questions were asked so this wasn\u2019t a slip-up. Ryan deliberately flipped the narrative to favor gun control.\u201d<\/p>\n Nehlen said\u00a0the Republican grassroots must no longer tolerate leaders who spend more time fighting their own party instead of the enemy. And among the most dangerous enemies, Nehlen said, is\u00a0Antifa.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are waking up,\u201d Nehlen said of grassroots conservatives. \u201cAnd it is imperative that we, as the voice of true conservative values, don\u2019t back down one inch on exposing the PC Marxists in our midst for what they are.\u201d<\/p>\n