President Joe Biden has repeatedly labeled his conservative critics as domestic extremists and has apparently used the insights of a radical left-wing group to help cement that label for his foes.
The Daily Signal reported last week that for more than two years, Biden administration bureaucrats within “numerous” federal agencies have sought help from the radical Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center to create tactics to fight the threat of “domestic terrorism.”
That “terrorism” tag was extended to, among others, conservative sources such as Moms for Liberty, the religious legal aid group Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, and the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for stricter immigration laws.
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The SPLC has long been known for exaggerating or fabricating the threat of extremism or violence as it simply targets groups it disagrees with. Yet Biden’s staff has welcomed the SPLC radicals into the White House at least 11 times since he took office.
The irony, of course, is that it is the disciples of the SPLC who often turn to terrorism and violence.
As Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz noted last April, a gunman who was an SPLC follower visited the Family Research Council’s headquarters in 2012 and shot a security guard in an effort to commit mass murder. The shooter eventually told the FBI he targeted the group because the SPLC had dubbed it a “hate group.”
Another SPLC fan shot up a baseball field in Virginia in 2017 wounding five people, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise as Republican lawmakers practiced for an annual baseball games against Democrats.
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Last year, two SPLC employees, including one Biden had nominated for a federal judge slot, were arrested for participating in a riot opposing a police facility in Atlanta.
According to the Daily Signal, in the fall of 2021, SPLC President Margaret Huang told a group of donors that because “we are unparalleled in our abilities to track and monitor the hate and extremist groups in the country,” that “many agencies in the new Biden administration [were] reaching out to solicit our expertise and our knowledge and information to help shape the policies that the new administration is adopting to counter the domestic terrorism threat.”
That relationship has continued.
Last year, for instance, the SPLC worked with the FBI in Richmond on drafting a plan to identify conservative Catholics as possible terrorists because of their views, and perhaps spy on Catholic churches.
Just last week, Vice President Kamala Harris included the SPLC’s chief strategy officer into a meeting of voting-rights leaders.
In response to the Daily Signal spotlighting the administration’s link to the SPLC, Republican senators chastised Biden’s bureaucrats for enlisting the aid of a group with such radical views and dubious credibility.
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“Since January 2021, the Biden administration has consistently attempted to weaponize the federal government against its political opponents,” GOP Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama told The Daily Signal.
“That it would turn to the SPLC to do so is disturbing but unfortunately not surprising, given their shared animosity towards religious freedom and parental rights.”
“The present-day SPLC has devolved into a disreputable, deeply unserious organization that dishonestly attempts to silence anyone across America who disagrees with its far-left activist agenda,” Britt continued. “That makes it a natural ally and echo chamber for a president who routinely demonizes Americans who simply have different political beliefs and perspectives.”
“Instead of targeting law-abiding Americans, this administration should be combating the national security, humanitarian, and economic crisis at the southern border—which gravely threatens the safety of our homeland and the well-being of our communities every single day,” Britt said.
“I am proud to be a Christian and a conservative, and I’ll continue to fight back against the Biden administration’s radical agenda.”
Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott noted that Biden has also harbored the opinions of leftists like American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, whose criticism of parental rights’ groups has been echoed by the SPLC.
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“Since he took office, President Biden’s administration has routinely worked with radical individuals and groups like Randi Weingarten and the SPLC to shape dangerous policy that targets Americans based on their religion [or] political views or simply because they rightly believe they should be involved in their child’s education,” Scott told The Daily Signal.
“It’s wrong and shows just how far President Biden will go in dangerously using the same tactics to weaponize government against its people that we see in Communist China, Venezuela and Cuba,” he continued. “I will not tolerate this political targeting and will use every tool at my disposal in the Senate to hold this administration accountable for these despicable decisions.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, told The Daily Signal, “The SPLC, which masquerades as a civil rights organization, is a far-left activist group that has smeared countless conservatives, including religious and parental rights groups. It is deeply disturbing that the Biden administration would enlist its help to target conservatives as domestic terrorists, marking just the latest example of this administration’s two-tiered system of justice.”
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