My friend Charlie Kirk feared where the SPLC’s rhetoric would lead. He was right

Last week, the Justice Department unsealed 11 indictments against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), charging the organization with wire fraud, conspiracy, and making false statements to a federally insured bank. At the center of the alleged scheme was a shocking operation in which the SPLC paid “informants” within extremist groups it claimed to oppose, including the Nazi Party of America, the KKK and the Aryan Nations. The indictments reveal that these characters are not just moles, but rather the leaders, organizers and important people who run these groups.

As a conservative, I watched these statements with a sense of righteousness. For years, those of us on the right have viewed the SPLC as a caricature of left-wing overreach and moral panic, but we should also not ignore its toxic influence on progressive circles. The failed assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday underscores the seriousness with which we must approach the radicalizing propaganda network of the far left, especially groups with outsized influence like the SPLC. As history tells us, this impact can have fatal consequences.

In 2010, the SPLC added the Family Research Council to its widely distributed “Hate Map.” Less than 22 months later, an armed gunman entered the organization’s headquarters in Washington, DC, intent on committing mass murder. He was heroically stopped by a security guard and later admitted to using the SPLC’s map to pick his target.

NEO-NAZI, KLAN ‘CYCLOPS’ AND ‘SADISTIC’ CYCLIST: HERE ARE THE PEOPLE ALLEGEDLY PAID IN THE SPLC’S INFORMANT NETWORK

To understand how the Hate Map came to play such a role, it is useful to revisit how SPLC came to the fore. Founded in 1971, the organization built its reputation through lawsuits aimed at eliminating racial segregation, expanding minority voter representation in the South, and dismantling organized Klan activities. Fortunately for the country, but unfortunately for the SPLC, by the 1990s its preferred targets had largely receded from public life. Clan headdresses, swastikas and burning crosses were relics of a bygone era.

This should have been celebrated by the SPLC, but instead it represented an existential threat. He was starting a business. New targets were needed to assuage the worst fears of their generous donors, still eager to act like beloved activists from the heyday of civil rights.

So in 2000, the SPLC created the Hate Map, an interactive tool that allows potential donors to click and see how much “hate” lurks in every corner of the country, possibly in a neighborhood near you.

The map has proven to be an excellent marketing product. Filled with red, the color of hate and the Republican Party, the Hate Map was a visual confirmation of prejudice for the NPR donor class who wanted to believe that the only real evil left in the world was white supremacy.

SPLC ENCOUNTERS BACKBACK FROM ‘HATE MAP’ TARGETS AFTER DOJ FRAUD ALLEGATION

But the SPLC soon discovered that it could raise even more money by expanding the definition of “hate.” According to the SPLC, these extremists only existed because a broader network of mainstream conservative and Christian organizations provided them with the necessary licensing structure. Groups opposing abortion or advocating traditional marriage were also added to the list. Over time, organizations such as Alliance Defending Freedom, Moms for Liberty, PragerU, and yes, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) joined the map. The line between violent extremism and ordinary ideological disagreement has been deliberately blurred.

But the SPLC still had a problem. There weren’t enough real, outward signs of white supremacy to sustain the business model. So he decided to produce some. Starting around 2014, the organization reportedly funneled millions of dollars through shell companies to pay extremist leaders, organizers and recruiters to promote the 1960s-style white supremacist stereotypes that made the group famous.

The return on investment was extraordinary. In 2017, on the heels of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville (which we now know was organized by paying an SPLC whistleblower roughly $270,000), the organization’s revenues nearly tripled, from $51 million to more than $133 million in one year. Big companies like JPMorgan and MGM have poured millions into their coffers, as have high-profile donors like Apple’s Tim Cook and George and Amal Clooney. The organization reportedly has an endowment of over $700 million by 2024.

DAVID MARCUS: BRING THE LIBERALS ON TRUMP THE ‘GOOD PEOPLE’ SCENES WERE MUCH WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT

I remember my friend and colleague Charlie Kirk first learning that TPUSA had been added to the Hate Map in the spring of 2025. His first reaction was characteristically defiant: “Of course. What took them so long?” We laughed at this nonsense. But later, when we were alone, he admitted that he was worried about our students. He was used to the slurs; they were not. Charlie knew it only took one madman to change everything.

On September 10, 2025, their worst fears tragically came true.

Exactly three months and 19 days after the SPLC fraudulently included Turning Point USA in its so-called Hate Map, a left-wing assassin killed Charlie and declared: “I’m sick of his hate. Some hate is non-negotiable.”

WILLIAM BENNETT: WHAT THE MURDER OF CHARLIE KIRK TELLS US ABOUT THE AMERICAN MIND

I cannot prove that the SPLC’s targeting of TPUSA directly led to Charlie’s assassination. But indirectly? Without asking questions. The organization’s decades-long campaign helped turn “hate” into the ultimate catch-all slur that powerful institutions use to dismiss, dehumanize, and ultimately legitimize violence against conservatives.

Real violent extremism does exist in America, but data increasingly shows that it is much more prevalent on the political left. Just days after Charlie’s assassination, a YouGov/The Economist poll found that almost 30% of self-identified progressives aged 18-39 believed violence was justified to achieve political goals, compared to just 5% of conservatives in the same age group. The SPLC and its allies were so successful at selling the pervasive right-wing “hate” myth that many on the left became convinced that conservatives deserved whatever violence they received.

So what needs to happen now?

CLICK FOR OTHER OPINIONS OF FOX NEWS

The entire SPLC structure needs to be disassembled down to the studs. Their financial networks must be exposed and cut. Donors should treat the proceeds of SPLC’s fraudulent scheme as blood money and demand reimbursement. Responsible institutions must immediately reject any association with the group. Those involved in the alleged fraud must face full investigation.

In his final text message to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Charlie wrote about the urgent need to dismantle the networks and financial infrastructure that enable left-wing violence.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION

The Justice Department indictments are the first real step toward achieving his vision.

Let’s hope these are just the first of many more steps, including criminal charges against the leaders responsible. If America has any chance of overcoming rising left-wing political violence, they must pay the price for their actions.