Testimony on SPLC's Influence in Government

Chairman Roy, members of the subcommittee.

Imagine that an organization notorious for

comparing mainstream conservatives and Christians to the Ku

Klux Klan, which inspired a literal domestic terror

attack and has ties to Antifa, advised

the federal government on how to counter the domestic

terrorism threat.

This Orwellian nightmare isn't a hypothetical.

It actually happened in the Biden administration, and it's the

reason I'm testifying before you today.

In the next few minutes, I will explain just how biased the

SPLC is, its influence in the previous

administration,

and why this should concern every American.

The SPLC gained its reputation by suing Ku Klux

Klan groups into bankruptcy, but now it

weaponizes that reputation, putting mainstream

conservative and Christian groups on a hate map with Klan

chapters. It uses this map to scare donors

into contributing to its seven hundred and eighty-six million

dollar endowment and to demonize its political and

ideological opponents by suggesting opposition to its

agenda is driven by hate.

On the hate map are moms and dads who oppose critical

race theory in schools, doctors who question the

grotesque transgender treatments euphemistically

referred to as gender-affirming care, and even

lesbians and gays who oppose drag queen story hour.

The hate map inspired a terrorist attack at the Family

Research Council in Washington, DC.

The man who opened fire at the Congressional baseball game practice

had liked the SPLC on Facebook and supported Bernie

Sanders. The SPLC also added Turning Point

USA to the hate map mere months before Charlie Kirk's

assassination. Yet none of this led the

Biden administration to think twice about working with the

SPLC.

The Biden White House hosted the SPLC at least

eighteen times. Biden nominated an SPLC

attorney to a top federal judgeship.

He touted the SPLC's help in the White House's strategy

to combat antisemitism.

More disturbing, however, was the SPLC's influence

on federal law enforcement. The FBI's Richmond

office cited the SPLC on radical traditional

Catholic hate groups, and the FBI rushed to rescind

the memo when a brave whistleblower published it.

Yet it seems the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division had no

such compunction over its close ties to the SPLC.

In fact, the division's head, Kristen Clarke, took a break

from prosecuting pro-life protesters to meet with

SPLC leaders and staff in March twenty twenty-three.

Also, when the SPLC added Moms for Liberty to

the hate map in

twenty twenty-three, it shared an embargoed copy of the report

with the Civil Rights Division.

An SPLC researcher briefed DOJ prosecutors on

the threat of the anti-LGBTQ movement.

Why does this matter? The SPLC has suggested that

merely quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church is enough

evidence of anti-LGBTQ hate to land you on the

map. For years, the SPLC defended

itself from the charge of being anti-Christian by noting that it does

not put every organization that upholds biblical sexual

morality on the hate map. Yet it only cited one piece of

evidence for this claim, its decision not to put Focus on the

Family on the map.

As it turns out, the language responding to the

anti-Christian charge

disappeared from the website recently.

And this year, SPLC added Focus on the Family to the hate

map. The SPLC acts as the left's ideological

enforcer, narrowing the parameters of socially

acceptable debate. Through the hate map, it suggests that

mere disagreement with its agenda on immigration, critical race

theory, or trans issues amounts to bigotry.

This contributes to the hostile climate in which conservatives keep their

mouths shut in order to avoid being accused of racism,

Islamophobia, or hate. It is no accident

that activists use this hate map to deplatform

conservatives or that activist groups have tried to

pressure

donor-advised funds to blacklist the SPLC's targets.

Law enforcement should not rely on such a biased

anti-Christian organization, and FBI Director Kash

Patel was right to swear off this partisan

smear machine. Americans deserve to know just how much

influence the SPLC had in the Biden administration, and as

Chairman Jordan recently noted, there is yet more to be revealed.

Thank you for your testimony, Mr. O'Neill