Southern Poverty Law Center interim CEO Bryan Fair refused to remove Turning Point USA from its hate group list.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) asked Fair, “Your organization has labeled Dr. [Alveda] King and Charlie Kirk and others. Do you regret that? Will you recant it, or are you going to double down and say that these people, including the martyred Charlie Kirk, in fact, somehow deserve to be on your hate list, for they’re constantly talking about bringing people together, talking about the teachings of the Bible, and the like.”
Fair tried to move past the question, instead saying, “Congressman, I said, as I said in my statement,” to which Issa then interjected, “Now wait a second, no, no, I heard your statement. I only want an answer to your question in 11 seconds left.”
Issa added, “Are you going to recant, yes or no? And if you’re not going to, please don’t tell me it’s because now you’re under charges. Your organization did it as much as 16 years ago. Will you take back any part of that, or is your hate list stand as your position of your organization as its head today?”
“The SPLC will continue to expose hate and extremism,” Fair responded.
Issa then said, “Okay, we’ll take that as the list stands.”
The SPLC labeled Turning Point USA as an “anti-government extremist group” in its 2024 Year in Hate and Extremism report. The report described TPUSA as a “well-funded, hard-right organization with links to SPLC-identified extremists and a tremendous amount of influence in conservative politics” and claimed that TPUSA promotes “authoritarian, patriarchal Christian supremacy.”
FBI Director Kash Patel later announced that the bureau severed all ties with the entity.
