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Who is George Soros? Here's why billionaire is being blamed for 'money trickling down' to BLM, Antifa protesters

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blamed George Soros on Fox News as the mastermind behind ' left-wing, anti-police, pro-criminal district attorneys' and he was asked to stop

Things turned a bit awkward during a Fox News segment recently when former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich spoke about liberal billionaire George Soros and linked him to the violent riots that have caused damage across the country over the last few months and he was stopped. On September 16, on Fox News’ ‘Outnumbered’ he said, “The No. 1 problem in almost all the cities is George Soros-elected, left-wing, anti-police, pro-criminal district attorneys who refuse to keep people locked up. Both Harris and Biden have talked very proudly about what they call progressive district attorneys. Progressive district attorneys are anti-police, pro-criminal, and overwhelmingly elected with George Soros’s money. And they are a major cause of the violence we are seeing because they keep putting the violent criminals back on the street.”

Host Melissa Francis promptly said, “I’m not sure we need to bring George Soros into this.” “He paid for it,” Gingrich responded. Host Marie Harf was quick to defend Francis and said. “No he didn’t. I agree with Melissa, George Soros doesn’t need to be part of this conversation.” A surprised Gingrich said, “OK?” followed by a long awkward silence. Then he said, “So it’s verboten (forbidden)?”. Followed by another awkward silence before host Harris Faulkner ended the segment: “OK, we’re going to move on.”

The news clip was shared by a lot of users. Music director Robby Starbuck wrote: “This is one of the weirdest exchanges I’ve ever seen on TV. @newtgingrich correctly points out that George Soros threw an unprecedented amount of money into DA races all over the country to elect radicals and Fox News basically told him to shut up. WTF?” Another viewer slammed Fox News for shutting down Gingrich, saying ' Soros funded the riots, which we all know for sure.'

 Politician Marjorie Taylor Greene said, “When I get to Congress I am going to do what I can to investigate how much of George Soros' money is trickling down to these BLM/ANITFA rioters.He truly is THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. Make sure you’re following me. I’m not afraid of going after ANYONE. That includes Soros!”

Who is George Soros?

According to Britannica, he is a Hungarian-born American financier and philanthropist. He is also known as a powerful and influential supporter of liberal social causes. According to a BBC report, he survived the Holocaust and fled the Communists, and is assumed to have made in total about $44bn. The report states that he has used his fortune to fund thousands of education, health, human rights and democracy projects. His Open Society Foundations, which now operate in more than 120 countries around the world, supports liberal, democratic causes which has irked and gave rise to many speculations about him by the staunch right supporters.

As per the report,  after he condemned the 2003 Iraq War and started donating millions of dollars to the US Democratic Party, American right-wing commentators and politicians have been after him. The attacks reached its peak after POTUS Donald Trump was elected. In fact, there was an attempted assassination on him as well. A pipe bomb was placed in the mailbox at Soros's Katonah, New York home on October 2018, as part of the October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts. As per BBC, similar packages were sent to the homes of former president Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democrats.

As fact-checked by Reuters, the allegations of him owning ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter protests turned out to be false. A spokesperson for Open Society Foundations told Reuters via email: “We proudly support organizations that promote civic engagement and champion the right of all Americans to petition their government for redressal of grievances. Those protesting the death of Mr. Floyd and police brutality across the nation do so out of a deep and abiding concern for country; they don’t do so for pay from these foundations or any other, as some cynics claim.”

In June as protests regarding Floyd's death gathered steam, wild conspiracy theories began circulating online that the 89-year-old has hired protesters and rented buses for their transportation to reach demonstration sites besides gathering bricks that can be used for vandalism and attacking the cops though none could prove these accusations. To cite an example in the spike in anti-Soros sentiments on social media, negative posts against him on Twitter jumped from around 20,000 to more than 500,000 in a day over a span of just four days in late May, according to an Anti-Defamation League analysis, AP states. 

Black Lives Matter was started by Opal Tometi, Patrisse Cullors, and Alicia Garza in 2013, after the death of Trayvon Martin. The co-founders told the New Yorker, as per Reuters, that Black Lives Matter “has always been somewhat decentralized” and operates in a horizontal manner: “We have always said the power goes on in the local chapter because they know what is going on”.  As per Reuters, Open Society Foundations donates to groups worldwide and their previous donations - including to Black Lives Matter and Planned Parenthood – have been a controversial issue in US. In May Candace Owens stoked the fire as she tweeted, “The Minneapolis chief of police just confirmed that many of the protesters that are burning down the city are NOT FROM MINNEAPOLIS. My guess: As he did with Antifa, Democrat George Soros has these thugs on payroll. He is funding the chaos via his Open Society Foundation.”

Even PolitiFact stated, that he and the Open Society Foundations had not contributed to any organization that financed street protests in Minneapolis.
As per Reuters, Antifa is an amorphous movement whose adherents oppose people or groups they consider authoritarian or racist, often using aggressive tactics, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which monitors extremists. The report states that following Trump’s 2016 election win, some far-right claims suggested that Soros funded the ‘Not My President’ protests.

"There have been many false reports about George Soros and the Open Society Foundations funding the protests that have erupted since the U.S. presidential elections. There is no truth to these reports,"  the foundation's President Chris Stone said, as per USA Today. The foundation has detailed their funding process on their website. 

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