CNN's Toobin gives a bizarre reasoning for why Trump criticizes 'Antifa

CNN's legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin opined Tuesday that President Donald Trump was motivated by racism when lobbing criticism at the "Antifa" movement.

"I'll protect you from the scary black people"

"Let's be clear also about what's going on here," said Toobin. The theme here is, 'I'm Donald Trump and I'll protect you from the scary black people.'"

"Antifa is widely perceived as an African-American organization," he claimed, "and this is just part of the same story as Lebron James, and Don Lemon, and [Rep.] Maxine Waters [D-Calif.], and the NFL players, and the UCLA basketball players."

Toobin was referring to various times that the president criticized black members of U.S. society who had disagreed with him or departed from his policies.

"This is about black versus white," continued Toobin. "This is about Donald Trump's appeal to racism, and it just happens all the time, and we never say it, we don't say it enough for what it is, but that's what's going on."

"It's just black people and brown people!"

Ron Brownstein, the editor of The Atlantic, offered a broader explanation, saying that the president defined himself as the protector of Americans against all elements undermining traditional American culture.

"I don't know Ron, I'm thinkin' it's just black people and brown people!" exclaimed Toobin. "I think that's what it's about, and you know yours is a very sophisticated analysis, but I think it's just as ugly as it could be."

"And let's not forget," he concluded, "Donald Trump became a politician by making up a racist lie about the first African-American president," referring to the "birther" conspiracy theory that Trump pushed before winning the presidency.

Here's the video of Toobin's comments on CNN:

Members of the Antifa movement regard themselves as "anti-Fascist," the phrase from which their name is taken, but many on the right have noted that their actions often veer into the violence practiced by Fascists. Antifa is not an African-American organization.