SPLC head unwittingly admits they fit their own criteria for their hate map

The head of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Bryan Fair was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, where lawmakers grilled him over the role that the SPLC played in allegedly inciting hate groups and an indictment against the organization for wire fraud and other allegations. During his comments, Fair inadvertently admitted that the SPLC fits its own criteria for their hate map.  

When asked about why the SPLC classified TPUSA as a hate group and not Antifa—a far-left radical group that commits acts of domestic terrorism—as a hate group, Fair claimed that the group was simply an “ideology.”

“Okay, explain to me the reason we're targeting groups like Turning Point USA, Family Research Council, traditional Catholic groups as hate groups, but not groups like Antifa, Jane's Revenge, Youth Liberation Front,” GOP Rep. Tom McClintock asked Fair. 

Fair then said, “We list groups that demonize or vilify people based on immutable characteristics or that express anti-government conspiracy theories.”

When pressed on the subject of whether or not Antifa and Jane's Revenge have committed violence, Fair claimed, “Congressman McClintock, it's my understanding that the FBI has said Antifa is an ideology, not a group. So, a group—if it's not a group, it wouldn't be identified on our list.”

Fair also claimed that hate groups have now moved online as well as “into government agencies,” or into the agencies of the Trump administration.

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, asked Fair why they had ended the “informant” program, where the SPLC funded members of the KKK and other hate groups. “Do you wish you hadn’t done the program?” Jordan asked Fair.

“We stopped the program because we believe hate and extremism has migrated significantly online and into government agencies,” Fair responded. The response of believing that hate groups have now migrated into government agencies would fit Fair's previously mentioned criteria for hate groups: namely groups that "express anti-government conspiracy theories.”

Jordan laughed at the response and said that it “made no sense.” The comment is directed at the Trump administration, which the SPLC has claimed “empowers extremists."



The SPLC's latest edition of their "hate map" puts mainstream conservative groups such as Turning Point USA and PragerU alongside groups such as the KKK.

In April, the SPLC was charged with wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to conceal money laundering after being indicted by a grand jury. The SPLC has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The indictment for the SPLC has accused the organization of secretly funneling millions in funds to informants associated with extremist groups such as the KKK and others, with those funds being used to purchase Klan robes, hoods, and crosses to burn.