The Southern Poverty Law Center defended its decision to keep both the Family Research Council and Turning Point USA on its hate group list during a contentious congressional hearing Tuesday, despite questions from Republican lawmakers about whether such designations can contribute to politically motivated violence.
Bryan Fair, the SPLC's interim president and CEO, faced pointed questioning from Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee examining the organization's practices and influence.
Roy focused heavily on the SPLC's designation of the Family Research Council, a Washington, D.C.-based Christian public policy organization that was targeted in a 2012 shooting. The gunman later told authorities he selected FRC after finding the group on the SPLC's hate group list.
Roy asked Fair whether the SPLC had “ever acknowledged that its designation contributed to that attack.”
Fair responded that the Family Research Council remains on the organization's list because it "meets the [SPLC's] criteria" for a hate group designation.
Asked by Roy what criteria justified the listing, Fair characterized the FRC as “anti-LGBTQ.”
Roy pressed Fair on “how many leftist, anti-Jewish groups” he had listed on the hate map, as well as “extremist Islamic groups.” When Fair declined to explicitly name any antisemitic or Islamic groups that were on the hate map, Roy detailed how his staffers had failed to find any.
SPLC defends including FRC, TPUSA on its 'hate map' | Politics
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