The Department of Homeland Security has been tracking antifa since 2016, classifying their conduct as “domestic terrorism activities”.

And the mayor of Berkeley (a Democrat) suggested it’s time to treat antifa “as a gang” and that peaceful protesters disassociate.

So whether antifa wasn’t violent on any particular occasion isn’t really enough to rehabilitate their image at this point. Previous episodes of extralegal violence have already wiped most of their political capital among journalists, elected officials, and political moderates. And antifa spokespeople (like the one in the second link, who insists everything they’ve done was in “self-defense”) haven’t exactly helped.

It's not an alt-right conspiracy about controlling the narrative. It's just that antifa has already cemented its own reputation through previous episodes of extralegal violence. Just like the center-right opposes neo-Nazis, the center-left has come around to opposing antifa.

He-said-she-said.