‘PAYING THE KKK’: GOP lawmaker tears into SPLC for alleged ‘HORRIBLE’ conduct

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]We touched on the DOJ's investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center earlier this hour. Now, let's rewind for a second. Back to the Richmond memo. The leaked 2023 Biden-era FBI document identifying, quote, radical traditionalist Catholics as potential domestic violent extremists.

[00:00:22]Yep, you heard that right. All information funneled in through none other than the Southern Poverty Law Center. A group of congressional Republicans, including our next guest, sounded the alarm, ripping the FBI for relying on this biased group.

[00:00:44]Joining us now, House Oversight Committee member and Arizona gubernatorial candidate Andy Biggs.

[00:00:52]Congressman, great to see you. I've referred to the SPLC as the epicenter of the hate hoax industrial complex. And the fact that this that the SPLC was involved in this memo via the FBI targeting Catholics should have been a tell then. I wonder because the Biden administration closed this investigate this DOJ investigation into the SPLC.

[00:01:21]And it was reopened by the Trump administration. How do you see all of this?

[00:01:27]Well, I mean, the same time that the FBI was relying on the SPLC and the Biden administration was foisting investigations on conservative groups for political purposes, it just became clear to me that SPLC just didn't like anybody or any organization that supported traditional American values. I mean, you start looking at the people that they were investigating and claiming to be hate groups. Dagan, you know, this we're talking about a group itself that was fomenting um hate and and and basically this disruption around the country. They were using that to raise fund money off of.

[00:02:05]That's that's a horrible horrible record.

[00:02:08]Congressman, let me ask you about the way they're framing it. They I I keep hearing them say and their defenders say, "Well, they had informants in these groups. They wanted to know what was going on, so that's what they were using the money for." Now, I think that's kind of a tell because I don't think you'd have an you'd pay an informant who'd be the leader of that group and would be the one organizing the activities. So, it seems like they're even having to stretch right now in their defense, but maybe I'm maybe I'm wrong on that. How do you read it?

[00:02:44]No, I think you're right. I mean, and think of this. If if you're just using informants, why are you setting up all these ghost bank accounts and ghost business entities to basically funnel money through or laund- I would call laundering money through. Why are you doing these wire transfers and and bank transfers, which are included in the indictment, because you were trying to hide what you were doing from your donors. Because you're look who they're playing. They're paying the KKK. They're paying the the person who set up the Charlottesville riots. These are the people that they were paying and then they want to say, "No, we just were we were looking for informants." No, they're their people that were on their payroll were fomenting violence and racism and the hatred.

[00:03:35]If you look at who and this is a quote from someone I I don't know. I had it in my notes from a long time ago. But as you were pointing out, the SPLC, their entire business was creating kind of phony [snorts] boogeymen to fundraise off these fictional evildoers. And they labeled like racist organizations the American College of Pediatricians, the Alliance for Defending Freedom, Moms for Liberty, and PragerU. But at the same time, we're funneling money to Aryan the Aryan groups, the Klan. And I just wonder how far maybe how far does this go?

[00:04:28]If cuz this is an 11-count indictment.

[00:04:31]And it'll be it I'll let you answer that question.

[00:04:37]Yeah, I mean, they've basically shot any credibility that they had. And for most people that were objective watching them over the years, they'd already spent their their goodwill. So, they they were viewed by many of us as being totally fraudsters because they were taking innocent groups, you know, Moms for Liberty as you say or Family Research Council and they were saying, "These are hate groups." And in the meantime, they're actually funneling the people that are causing the hate in our society. And so, I view it as saying they were fellow travelers with those people that were hateful and causing violence. I think that is outrageous.

[00:05:16]And then they were cover trying to cover it up, which is what the indictment's all about is the fraud that they were using to raise money and then how they tried to hide it. That's what these indictments are about, and I think they're they look justified. These allegations are serious, and they're going to have to respond with something more than, "Oh, we were just doing our doing our business." You lied to your donors. You lied to the American public, and that's something that you're going to have to own. Mhm. You know, the left's really good at when they find a formula that works, they replicate it.

[00:05:49]So, you got to wonder, anybody else doing this stuff? We got to leave it there, Congressman Andy Biggs. Thanks for joining us tonight. Really good to see you.