Pelosi: “Antifa” activists “should be prosecuted”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, during a visit to Denver on Wednesday, condemned the violence of “antifa” activists in recent demonstrations but said they don’t represent Democrats.

“I think if there’s some people who are acting in a violent way, that they should be prosecuted,” Pelosi said during a meeting with editors and reporters at The Denver Post, adding that activists who identify as “antifa” — short for “anti-fascists” — tend to be socialists or anarchists, rather than Democrats.

But Pelosi took pains in her comments, which echoed a statement she issued Tuesday night, to draw a distinction between the “antifa” activists and some of the groups they’ve protested against.

Among them are white supremacists who have been observed “heiling Hitler,” she said, at some demonstrations.

That includes one in Charlottesville, Va., this month that resulted in the killing of a counter-protester when a car plunged into a crowd.

“Violence by anybody is to be rejected and dealt with … but that is not an equivalence, in my view,” Pelosi said.

Her formal Tuesday statement addressed the assaults of at least five people by black-clad anarchists at a protest against hate Sunday in Berkeley, Calif.

The Washington Post characterized her words as “the strongest criticism of left-wing protesters that any Democratic leader has made.”

“Our democracy has no room for inciting violence or endangering the public, no matter the ideology of those who commit such acts,” Pelosi said in her statement. “The violent actions of people calling themselves antifa in Berkeley this weekend deserve unequivocal condemnation, and the perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted.”

But the statement was perhaps more direct than her remarks in Denver. She stopped by the newspaper Wednesday afternoon for an editorial board interview before she was set to speak at an event.