Washington, D.C. — The House Judiciary Committee today held a hearing titled “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate,” the latest installment in House Republicans’ ongoing campaign to attack a legacy civil rights organization and strike fear into any civil society group that holds the powerful accountable and protects vulnerable communities.
In response, Congressional Integrity Project Senior Advisor Kyle Herrig released the following statement:
“House Republicans couldn’t find credible witnesses for their sideshow because there is no credible case. They handed a microphone to three of the right wing’s most discredited partisans and dressed it up as congressional oversight. Their goal: provide political cover for the Trump administration’s prosecution of an organization that spent decades dismantling the Ku Klux Klan and sharing hate group intelligence directly with the FBI.
“Attacking the Southern Poverty Law Center, the premiere organization tracking extremism, does not make Americans safer. It makes it easier for extremists to operate in the dark.”
Background on Witnesses
Tyler O’Neil is a career right-wing media operative who wrote an entire book attacking the SPLC’s efforts to track hate groups — including neo-Nazis, Klan chapters, and antisemitic organizations — and called their hate map “an organ of disinformation.” He has spent years at outlets like The Daily Signal defending organizations the SPLC has flagged as hate groups. During his tenure as a leader at The Daily Signal, the outlet — and O’Neil himself — routinely praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his policies.
Carol Swain is a longtime SPLC critic with deep ties to right-wing advocacy organizations, including the Heritage Foundation and the Trump administration’s 1776 Commission. She retired from Vanderbilt University in 2017 after students called for her suspension over her bigotry and unprofessionalism in the classroom.
Tony Perkins has led the Family Research Council (FRC) since 2003, an organization the SPLC has designated an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group since 2010. Before joining FRC, Perkins paid former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke $82,500 for his mailing list during a 1996 Louisiana campaign, and delivered a paid speech to the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens in 2001. He now serves as a commissioner on Trump’s Commission on International Religious Freedom.
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