Republican lawmakers continued their efforts to downplay and obscure the crisis of racist extremism during yet another hearing centered on the Southern Poverty Law Center.
I’ve been documenting the Republican Party’s dubious crusade against the SPLC, the organization known for assisting law enforcement with investigating racist extremist groups. The Trump administration’s recent indictment of the SPLC on allegations the group defrauded investors by financing the extremist groups they claim to fight has ramped up that attack and fits a long tradition of white conservatives denying the origins, existence or extremism of racist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. (The SPLC has denied any wrongdoing.)
That propaganda effort continued Tuesday at a House hearing where Republicans accused the SPLC of “manufacturing hate” despite the organization having been an important partner to the federal government for decades in rooting out white supremacist extremism — a national security threat acknowledged by officials from both the Biden administration and President Donald Trump’s first administration.