More Florida Republicans are getting on board with denouncing the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for its attack on the prominent parents’ rights group, Moms For Liberty.
Sen. Marco Rubio led an effort on Wednesday to call on President Joe Biden to reject the SPLC’s characterization of the Florida-based group Moms for Liberty as a hate group.
The far-left SPLC is notoriously anti-Republican and anti-conservative. As The Free Press reported earlier this month, it labeled Moms for Liberty, a grassroots group formed in 2021 that has gained prominence for battling left-wing gender ideology and Critical Race Theory in schools, “extremists” for being at the “forefront” of parents’ groups that mobilized against “an anti-student inclusion movement that targets any inclusive curriculum that contains discussions of race, discrimination and LGBTQ identities.”
In the news: Left-Wing “Anti-Hate” Group Brands ‘Moms For Liberty’ Domestic Extremists
In response this week, Rubio and several other Florida Republicans asked Biden to take a stand in defense of parents being able to raise their children as they see fit.
The lawmakers expressed “serious concerns” about the Biden administration’s willingness to work with the SPLC.
The lawmakers noted that the group “smears parental rights groups that are concerned about the quality and content of their children’s education.”
“Parents have rightfully been concerned about draconian COVID-era polices that resulted in severe learning loss, school activities rooted in critical race theory, and curricula that are inappropriate for young children,” they wrote.
Yet, SPLC surprised no one by targeting Moms for Liberty. That’s because SPLC “is a corrupt and vicious tool of progressive radicals seeking to label individuals and groups with whom they disagree as hateful and/or extremist.”
In the news: Florida Democrats, Moms For Liberty Offer Dueling Messages
The GOP lawmakers also noted that SPLC’s designation follows the Biden administration’s “actions to target concerned parents for scrutinizing decisions from local education leaders.” “Indeed, there is reason to suspect your administration has been coordinating with SPLC on this matter,” they added.
The rationale for that claim was a recent report suggesting that Susan Corke, the director of SPLC’s Intelligence Project, met with National Security Council counterterrorism director John Picarelli earlier this year.
“This meeting raises serious questions as to whether the White House encouraged SPLC to work on behalf of the administration to label parental rights groups and organizations as ‘extremist groups,’” the lawmakers added.
They then demanded that Biden explain the purpose of Picarelli’s meeting with Corke, and whether the White House did, in any way, “encourage, incentivize, or pressure SPLC to label parental rights groups and organizations” as extremists.
They also wanted to know whether the administration is using SPLC to assist the Justice Department in targeting parents, and whether the administration can confirm that neither the White House nor any other federal agency is using taxpayers’ dollars to target parents.
Finally, and simply, they want to know if Biden agrees that parental rights groups should be labeled “extremist groups.”
Joining Rubio in signing the letter was Sen. Rick Scott and Reps. Bill Posey, Neal Dunn, Scott Franklin, Daniel Webster, Aaron Bean, Greg Steube, Anna Paulina Luna, Kat Cammack, Gus Bilirakis, and Byron Donalds.
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