House Republicans on the Southern Poverty Law Center

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[00:00:02]Good morning, everyone. My name is Clay Fuller, and I'm the congressman for Georgia's 14th congressional district, and I appreciate everyone taking their time this morning to be here at this important event, because this is an incredibly dark moment in our nation's history. There is a nonprofit industrial complex on the left who is trying to tear at the fabric of our country that has made our country successful for almost for 250 years.

[00:00:26]No better example of that non that nonprofit industrial complex is the Southern Poverty Law Center. They have quite literally, as has been shown by the Department of Justice, as alleged by the Department of Justice, has been funding the exact type of hate that they they allege to their donors that they are trying to trying to to fight against.

[00:00:48]They one of the the things that was shown in the Department of Justice allegations that they funded the Charlottesville rally, which was the motivating factor for President Biden to to run for president.

[00:01:01]So, we have to understand that we are at a moment where we have to push back and fight against this nonprofit industrial complex that is seeking to destroy our country each and every day. And behind me are a number of groups who have faced the lawfare that these nonprofits and the Southern Poverty Law Center has has put against them. And it's very important that we tell their story, lift them up, and make sure that we're exposing the truth to the American people that they have to understand each and every day we have to push back against this leftist nonprofit industrial complex. Next up, I want to turn it over to Tina Descovich with the Moms for Liberty. And I want to say thank you to the Moms for Liberty for allowing me to to be here with you this morning. So, thank you so much.

[00:01:47]Thank you, Congressman, for hosting us here today.

[00:01:50]Today, I stand here for something much bigger than Moms for Liberty. I'm standing for all parents and grandparents and citizens that believe they still have the right to stand up at a school board meeting and speak out on behalf of their children and a broken education system. And they have the right to not be called extremists and be labeled because what is happening to Moms for Liberty today should upset every American regardless of political party. In June 2023, the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled Moms for Liberty and put us on their hate map.

[00:02:23]Moms for Liberty chapters, 249 of them are on that hate map and we make up 20% of the Southern Poverty Law Center's map.

[00:02:33]Combined with other parents' rights groups, we make up over 50% of their anti-government extremist categories, moms, dads, grandparents.

[00:02:43]The moment they added us to that map, everything changed. Our mission didn't change, our purpose didn't change, but everything changed because a very well-funded powerful organization decided to place a target on the backs of mothers and fathers. And I'd like to call this exactly what it is.

[00:02:59]It is manufacturing hate.

[00:03:03]And the consequences are real.

[00:03:06]Right here, I have 125 pages. I could have thousands more if I had time of parent testimonies of what the SPLC has done to them, to their children, to their families.

[00:03:19]There are stories of being doxxed. There are stories of being swatted.

[00:03:25]There's a story from Julie, our chapter chair in Georgia, who lost her income, her ability to provide for her family.

[00:03:32]There's a story of a mom in Maryland and I want to read a quote from her testimony.

[00:03:37]My child's father directly weaponized the SPLC designation in sworn discovery responses to argue that my involvement in my child's education made me potentially unfit to have primary education custody.

[00:03:52]This single label me as a dangerous radical.

[00:03:56]Parents will tell you in this document that because of the SPLC, they needed police protection. But, I'll tell you who didn't ask for police protection, and that is our chair in Massachusetts.

[00:04:06]And she didn't ask because the entire municipal police across the state have been trained in their documents from the SPLC that Moms for Liberty is dangerous to their communities and to their state.

[00:04:19]How can she ever feel state safe in the state of Massachusetts?

[00:04:25]Then there's Nicole in Pennsylvania who's also in this document. Her children were exposed to public slurs, hostility, threatening behavior at local events. Objects were thrown at her car when her family was in it. They had to install security cameras and get protection because individuals were claiming to know where she lived and they would find her.

[00:04:44]Think about this for a moment. Mothers and fathers attending school board meetings are now needing protection and security.

[00:04:52]When parents need escorts to participate in civic life, something has gone terribly wrong in America. Our members are not radicals. They are not extremists. They are moms packing lunches. They are dads at baseball games coaching. They are grandparents trying to raise their grandchildren.

[00:05:09]They are your neighbors.

[00:05:12]Disagreeming Disagreeing is not hate.

[00:05:15]Questioning the government is not extremism. One of the worst parts of this is the SPLC labels labels don't stay on their website. They move into public meetings. They move into media coverage, into political campaigns, into government discussions, and in training materials. Labels do matter.

[00:05:33]Because once you label citizens as dangerous, people begin treating them as dangerous.

[00:05:39]And it's a repeated lie often enough will become a weapon that is used against our citizens.

[00:05:44]I want to be clear. This isn't about avoiding criticism of our organization.

[00:05:48]There's a big difference between debate and discussion.

[00:05:52]The SPLC has manufactured hate.

[00:05:57]And today we are demanding accountability.

[00:06:01]Because when parents become the enemy, America itself is lost. Thank you.

[00:06:08]Oh, and up next senior investigative reporter at the Daily Signal and author of why hate pays, Tyler O'Neil.

[00:06:20]Thank you, Tina. And thank you to the congressman for having us.

[00:06:24]I wanted briefly address the Southern Poverty Law Center and its allies on the left are saying that attacking the SPLC is an attack on civil society. Nothing could be further from the truth. When we are exposing how the SPLC systematically defames conservative nonprofits, how they exaggerate the amount of hate in America today, and how they hoodwink their donors into ponying up cash, we are holding an organization accountable that has been one of the worst offenders when it comes to making civil society less possible in America today.

[00:07:02]I wrote this book, Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center, in 2020 because even back then I knew that the Southern Poverty Law Center is the tip of the spear when it comes to demonizing conservative and Christian organizations, mainstream, law-abiding people who argue before Congress and the Supreme Court, who stand for basic truths about their faith that have been the same yesterday, today, and forever. And now the Southern Poverty Law Center is comparing them to the Ku Klux Klan, putting them on a map with Klan chapters and chapters of the Aryan Nations. Those organizations that the SPLC now stands accused of funding some of the members of.

[00:07:47]This could not be more egregious. We have everyday moms and dads who want to say in their children's education, who are now put on a map with chapters of the clan. We have conservative litigators who go to the Supreme Court and win, convincing the justices of the righteousness of their cause, and they are put on the hate map with clan chapters. We're about to hear from a leader at the Family Research Council, which experienced a terrorist attack in 2012 because of the SPLC's designations. And I feel honor bound to add that last year the SPLC added Turning Point USA, the largest conservative grassroots youth organization in America, to their hate map. And 4 months later, a man silenced the great debater Charlie Kirk, shooting a bullet into his neck. neck. And prosecutors are allegedly saying that this man said he planned to shoot Kirk because of his hate.

[00:08:48]The hate map has real consequences.

[00:08:51]And the Southern Poverty Law Center is intending to make that happen. Not the violence, they've condemned the violence. But the Southern Poverty Law Center's over and over again gone to Big Tech, gone to banks, gone to financial regulators and said, "You should take action against the organizations on our hate map." They suggest that this hate map is revealing the infrastructure of white supremacy in America today.

[00:09:18]Nothing could be further from the truth.

[00:09:20]Yes, there are bad extremist organizations on that map. Some of whom the SPLC now stands accused of funding.

[00:09:28]But many of the groups on that map are moms and dads speaking at school board meetings, are conservatives advocating on Capitol Hill for policy that protects the family. Are people raising concerns about the threat that radical Islam poses across our country today. So, I could not be more proud to stand alongside good people who are falsely smeared by the Southern Poverty Law Center, who face real consequences from this organization's defamation. And I must say, the federal government should not be relying Federal government, Big Tech, corporate America should not be relying on this discredited smear factory. It has a laundry list of scandals that I could get into it it reads like Mad Libs. Racial discrimination, sexual harassment, hate for pay, inspiring terrorism. All these things are backed by what has happened at the Southern Poverty Law Center, even union busting.

[00:10:29]Many of these things are backed up. The SPLC is utterly corrupt. As I wrote in 2020, as I stand before you and will testify in Congress today, the SPLC should not be relied upon. And next you're going to hear from one of those who experienced the negative effects of the SPLC's targeting personally. I I am honored to introduce General Jerry Boykin at the Family Research Council, who is there on the day of that attack in 2012. And he will address what happens when you are defamed and put on a map with clan chapters.

[00:11:07]Thank you.

[00:11:09]Good morning.

[00:11:15]On the 15th of August, 2020, Floyd Lee Corkins walks into the Family Research Council.

[00:11:35]He was there with nefarious intent.

[00:11:39]He was there to kill as many of people in our organization as he could.

[00:11:45]And he told that to the FBI.

[00:11:51]In the lobby, he shot our building manager.

[00:12:00]And he would be with us today if he wasn't over in the hill here for the uh testimony that uh Tony Perkins is going to give today.

[00:12:14]Leo was shot was shot in the arm.

[00:12:18]But with one arm, he wrestled him down.

[00:12:20]He wrestled Corkins down.

[00:12:23]He got him on the floor and got the weapon away from him with one arm.

[00:12:31]Corkins had 50 rounds of ammunition with him and a 9 mm pistol.

[00:12:37]And he was there to kill as many people as possible according to his own testimony.

[00:12:48]Corkins also had something else there.

[00:12:52]He had uh a bag full of Chick-fil-A sandwiches.

[00:12:58]And he told the FBI that he was going to smear those in the face of the people that he killed.

[00:13:08]Thank you, God, that he didn't kill anybody.

[00:13:14]Corkins told the FBI during his inter- interrogation that he found the Family Research Council online on the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center and he determined that based on what they had there on their hate map that we were haters. We were a hate organization.

[00:13:42]First of all, let me go on the and say that's just not the truth.

[00:13:48]We don't hate people. We're a Christian organization.

[00:13:54]And he said that uh he saw in there the map that they make that they call their hate map.

[00:14:02]Exposed us as being a hate organization.

[00:14:09]So, he was motivated by that to come in and kill as many of our people as possible.

[00:14:19]Leo Johnson had to go through many surgeries.

[00:14:25]A lot of hospital time and ultimately he came out ready to go back. And today he is still our building manager and one of the most beloved people in our organization. Everybody loved this man.

[00:14:43]He doesn't have a hate bone in his in his body.

[00:14:48]But he was declared a hater because of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

[00:14:59]Sorry.

[00:15:03]Um He's not the only one, obviously. It was already said. He's not the only one that has has suffered as a result of the Southern Poverty Law Center and this illegitimate this This hate map that they have.

[00:15:27]There is no criteria for it other than the fact that it's a money maker for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

[00:15:37]And I have to tell you it's time for that to be stopped.

[00:15:43]Floyd Lee Corkins is in jail.

[00:15:47]And he'll be out soon.

[00:15:50]I don't know exactly what the date is.

[00:15:53]But what's he going to do next? Is he going back to the Southern Poverty Law Center map?

[00:15:59]Is it going to motivate him again?

[00:16:01]Probably not.

[00:16:03]But how about the people of the same mentality that he has?

[00:16:08]Because see there have been other people.

[00:16:12]How about Steve Scalise?

[00:16:15]Do you know that the guy that shot Steve Scalise in 2007?

[00:16:22]Do you know that he went to the website for the Southern Poverty Law Center?

[00:16:31]He He went to that website frequently, apparently.

[00:16:35]According to what we were told by the FBI.

[00:16:40]So let me come to the end here and say yes Charlie Kirk was another one that was a identified as being a hater.

[00:16:54]Can you imagine that?

[00:16:56]Can you imagine that he is supposed to be a hater?

[00:17:02]Well he's not.

[00:17:06]This hate map stuff is illegitimate because there is no process that they go through other than to figure out what's going to give them the most money to identify you as a hater.

[00:17:20]Folks, we don't need another shooting anywhere, not just at Family Research Council. We don't need another another shooter. We don't need somebody else to wind up being injured the way he was.

[00:17:36]So, I ask you all, let your members of Congress know.

[00:17:43]Let them know that you want them to take action.

[00:17:47]Take action against these people for this illegitimate map that they put out that is endangering the lives and the safety of a lot of people.

[00:18:00]God bless you.

[00:18:05]Good morning. I'm Jeremy Tedesco, senior counsel and senior vice president at Alliance Defending Freedom, the nation's largest legal organization defending religious freedom, free speech, and parental rights with 18 Supreme Court victories since 2011.

[00:18:20]In the 1950s, Senator Joe McCarthy kept a list of accused or suspected communists. He was right about some of the names, but not all of them.

[00:18:28]His methods sidestep due process, destroying the reputations and careers of innocent people along with the guilty.

[00:18:35]Society called it what it was, a blacklist, and society condemned it.

[00:18:40]>> [snorts] >> The SPLC keeps keeps a list, too. They call it the hate map. And like McCarthy's list, it condemns the guilty along with the innocent, leaving no recourse for the unjustly targeted.

[00:18:51]Don't take my word for it. A former SPLC staffer, writing in The New Yorker, called it a highly profitable scam.

[00:18:58]The progressive editor of Current Affairs called it an outright fraud and a willful deception designed to scare older liberals into writing checks to the SPLC.

[00:19:08]These aren't conservatives.

[00:19:10]These are people who believed in the mission until they looked closely.

[00:19:14]Like McCarthy's list, the SPLC's list has real consequences.

[00:19:18]When the SPLC puts your organization on the hate map, the machinery kicks in.

[00:19:23]Banks and payment processors cut off the flow of money. Tech companies deplatform you and deny you services. Venues turn you away.

[00:19:31]The media blindly parrots the label.

[00:19:33]Employees can't give to their favorite charities cuz their employer uses the list as a screening mechanism. And you have to live with the fact that the label puts a target on your back for violence.

[00:19:45]Amazon's Jeff Bezos testified under oath before Congress that his company treated the SPLC's blacklist as equivalent to OFAC, the US Treasury's official official list of foreign terrorists.

[00:19:58]One list is [snorts] created by Congress, administered by the federal government, and subject to due process protections, and ultimately democratic accountability. The other is produced by left-wing activists in Montgomery, Ala- who answered to no one.

[00:20:13]And here's who's they put on the list: TPUSA, Moms for Liberty, Family Research Council, where I work, Alliance Defending Freedom, Focus on the Family, Do No Harm. The list goes on and on and on. Mainstream organizations representing mainstream American views.

[00:20:29]The SPLC didn't just redefine hate. They redefined it to mean anyone they disagreed with.

[00:20:35]The SPLC wired that label into the financial system, the tech stack, the giving channels, in ways that impact the everyday lives of millions of Americans who never had a day in court, never had a chance to appeal, and never even knew it was happening.

[00:20:51]No court approved this system, no legislature authorized it, and the organization running it has now been federally indicted for bank fraud.

[00:20:59]The indictment opened the door.

[00:21:01]This hearing opens it wider.

[00:21:03]But a door isn't enough. Congress, the administration, the state and state officials need to walk through it and tear the machinery down.

[00:21:11]The SPLC's blacklist doesn't belong in our banks.

[00:21:15]It doesn't belong in our technology. It doesn't belong in our workplaces.

[00:21:19]And it doesn't belong in America. Thank you.

[00:21:22]Next we'll hear from TPU USA's George Washington University chapter president Ryan Slingerland.

[00:21:33]Good morning, everyone. My name is Ryan Slingerland. I'm the chapter president for Turning Point USA at the George Washington University here in DC.

[00:21:42]The SPLC, the Southern Poverty Law Center, has put us on their map and they think that that is a great way to silence us. Well, I can tell you folks, it certainly is not. It does absolutely nothing. We still show up, we still organize, and we still speak, and we are on campuses all across this very beautiful country.

[00:22:01]The SPLC's map is meant to intimidate.

[00:22:04]It's supposed to tell students, parents, administrators alike not to associate with us, that we're not worth their time or business, and that we're a hateful organization.

[00:22:14]That might work on others, but it certainly will not work on us.

[00:22:18]You don't get to label us extremists and expect us to sit down and be quiet.

[00:22:24]We are conservative students using our First Amendment rights, nothing more, nothing less. Put us on whatever map you want.

[00:22:33]We're not extremists. We're Americans.

[00:22:35]We aren't going to be intimidated by hateful rhetoric from the lunatic left, and we certainly will not be intimidated by some silly map from a silly little fundraising machine masquerading as a civil rights organization. This is America. We're going to continue to speak. We're going to continue to organize. We're not going to stop, not now, not ever. Thank you. Next up, I'd like to introduce the founder and president of Awake Illinois, Shannon Adcock.

[00:23:10]Good morning, fellow advocates, members of the press, and concerned citizens.

[00:23:13]Thank you for joining us here today outside the US Capitol. I'm Shannon Adcock, founder and president of Awake Illinois, a bold grassroots organization I launched in May 2021 in one of the most woke states of the country and the worst governor in history. I also started the first Moms for Liberty chapter in the state of Illinois.

[00:23:31]As a mother and a lifelong Illinoisan, I started Awake Illinois to empower parents to protect children, defend our liberties, and preserve the American way of life. We now stand united with grassroots organizations nationwide.

[00:23:44]Obviously, our work was a threat to woke because the Southern Poverty Law Center targeted us when we weren't even a year old. And then in 2023, proceeded to put us on their hate map.

[00:23:55]While they largely ignored Antifa's riots and violence and listed only 14 KKK groups, they branded us extremist simply for speaking out.

[00:24:04]We do not burn cities or commit violence.

[00:24:07]Rather, we speak at school board meetings, file federal civil rights complaints, support litigation to protect constitutional rights, and assist our fellow Americans.

[00:24:16]We don't raise fists.

[00:24:18]We use our voices.

[00:24:19]And the SPLC did not like it.

[00:24:23]Their smear did cause real harm, doxing, threats, lost employment, death threats that required private security, and donors pulling back. I can tell you, around the time that they listed my organization, there was a creep that started coming around my children's bus stop and yelled out his car window that I'm a Nazi.

[00:24:39]Death threats came in on X saying, "Death to Shannon, ropes around your neck, I know where you live."

[00:24:45]When we say threats, this is not hyperbole. This really has happened to lawful, peaceful Americans like me.

[00:24:52]And it's wrong.

[00:24:54]Yet, as I I in my open letter to SPLC interim president Brian Fair, their strategy has failed.

[00:25:01]Their clear goal was to silence us and make us disappear, to cower, to bow.

[00:25:06]As you can see today, we are not going away.

[00:25:11]While the SPLC smears us, their own credibility is collapsing. The Department of Justice indictment on 11 federal counts is eye-opening.

[00:25:18]Wire fraud, false statements, and money laundering for allegedly funneling millions in donor funds to extremists, including ties to the KKK and Aryan Nations.

[00:25:27]They did not fight hate.

[00:25:29]They profited from division.

[00:25:32]Between the indictment and today's judicial hearing, I'm glad America is seeing the truth as we advocates have known for years.

[00:25:40]The SPLC attacks have only strengthened our resolve.

[00:25:43]Awake Illinois has stopped dangerous bills in Illinois, including HB 2827 and HB 4876.

[00:25:50]We provide resources to thousands of families and continue our mission unchanged, defending parental rights, liberty, and free speech rooted in love for this country and the Constitution.

[00:26:02]While the SPLC has millions of dollars, support for organizations comes from everyday Americans.

[00:26:08]I encourage you to seek out, join, and fund principled grassroots organizations like the ones here and many more who were wrongly targeted.

[00:26:17]Together we are building a better future for America.

[00:26:21]We will not be intimidated. We will not back down.

[00:26:24]On behalf of Awake Illinois, I'm Shannon Adcock, and we cannot be canceled. I will turn it back to Tina Descovich with Moms for Liberty. Thank you.

[00:26:32]Uh thank you all for coming out today and listening to our stories. We have a couple minutes only. We're trying to get over to the hearing if you have any questions.

[00:26:41]Okay, no questions. We got to go. One question. What is the action you would like Congress to take?

[00:26:46]I'm sorry. What is the action you would like Congress to Is there anyone specifically that What action would you like Congress to take? Did you address that or I can address it.

[00:26:54]Uh Sun Look, the sunlight is critical. So, continue to have hearings. The SPLC's hate label has been weaponized throughout the financial infrastructure of our country, the technological infrastructure. So, we need the evidence of that that weaponization and the embedding of that. And then they need to take actions to root it out. It might be legislative action. It might be action by administrative agencies as well.

[00:27:19]All right, thank you. We have to run. We have to get over to that My response is we've never had a chance to respond to any of that through the SPLC's designation. Some of it is fabricated, some of it is twisted, some of it is completely just It is just lies. And so, we would like to have our day in court somewhere to be able to show evidence and prove and have them prove what they're putting out there.

[00:28:19]Thank you. We have to get to the hearing. Thank you, everyone. We're getting to the hearing.