Republican National Committee Officially Repudiates Discredited Southern Poverty Law Center
by Breitbart News / ALLUM BOKHARI
The Republican National Committee (RNC) approved a resolution repudiating the disgraced Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the purported “anti-hate” organization that has become a vehicle for smearing conservatives and critics of radical leftism.
The resolution commits the RNC to officially “Refuting the legitimacy of the Southern Poverty Law Center to identify hate groups.”
The SPLC bills itself as an expert on “hate groups,” maintaining a “hate map” that tracks them around the country. However, the SPLC has repeatedly added mainstream conservative organizations to its list, smearing their reputation and allowing violent far-left criminals to locate and target them.
The RNC resolution notes that the SPLC’s smears “puts conservative groups or voices at risk of attack.”
Conservatives and critics of progressivism that have been smeared by the SPLC include the Family Research Council (which is currently part of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom), the Alliance Defending Freedom, White House speechwriter Stephen Miller, One America News reporter Jack Posobiec, moderate Muslim Maajid Nawaz, and Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Nawaz successfully sued the SPLC for falsely labeling him an “anti-Muslim extremist” in 2018, winning a $3.3 million settlement from the organization.
In 2012, far-left radical Floyd Corkins used the SPLC’s “hate map” to locate the offices of the Family Research Council.
He proceeded to the FRC’s offices with a loaded pistol, and opened fire on the office’s security staff before being stopped by an armed guard.
He later told authorities that he planned to kill “as many people as he could” at the FRC, and explained that his crime was politically motivate — he had seen the FRC on the SPLC’s list of “anti-gay” organizations.
Court records submitted by the FBI confirmed that Corkins, a former far-left activist, had indeed checked the SPLC website prior to his attack:
The full text of the RNC’s resolution can be found here, and is copied below:
WHEREAS, The SPLC makes a practice of incorrectly labeling persons and organizations as “hate groups”;
WHEREAS, The actions of the SPLC have served to mobilize persons to act in hate and violence towards those on its “hate group” list;
WHEREAS, The Family Research Council suffered a violent attack due to its support of the traditional family, which the SPLC has deemed as hateful;
WHEREAS, The Obama Administration legitimized the SPLC and acted upon their request that the federal government formally identify individuals and organizations as “hate groups;”;
WHEREAS, The SPLC was further legitimized when the Obama-Biden Administration gave them the ability to provide input to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); and
WHEREAS, Legitimizing the SPLC puts conservative groups or voices at risk of attack; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the SPLC is a radical organization, and that the federal government should not view this organization as a legitimate foundation equipped to provide actionable information to DHS or any other government agency
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News
