Republican lawmakers continued their efforts to downplay and obscure the crisis of racist extremism during yet another hearing centered on the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

I’ve been documenting the Republican Party’s dubious crusade against the SPLC, the organization known for assisting law enforcement with investigating racist extremist groups. The Trump administration’s recent indictment of the SPLC on allegations the group defrauded investors by financing the extremist groups they claim to fight has ramped up that attack and fits a long tradition of white conservatives denying the origins, existence or extremism of racist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. (The SPLC has denied any wrongdoing.)

That propaganda effort continued Tuesday at a House hearing where Republicans accused the SPLC of “manufacturing hate” despite the organization having been an important partner to the federal government for decades in rooting out white supremacist extremism — a national security threat acknowledged by officials from both the Biden administration and President Donald Trump’s first administration.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan’s line of questioning left little doubt about his effort to portray the SPLC as nefarious and the impetus for various acts of racism. At one point, Jordan asked SPLC CEO Bryan Fair whether his organization’s work was “all about the money.” At another, Jordan said the SPLC’s fundraising had increased after the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017, to which Fair replied by saying the group’s funding went up after Trump became president. 

The sentiment fueling the Republican Party’s resentment toward the SPLC appears to be the same angst-ridden sentiment expressed on Tuesday by Trump’s Medicare and Medicaid administrator, Mehmet Oz, when he complained to Fox Business about critics who have called the administration racist for making racist generalizations about Somalians. Which is to say, Republicans’ anger seems rooted in the fact that they or their allies aren’t free to engage in racist behavior without facing scrutiny. 

“You’re not allowed to complain about Somalians because that’s racist,” Oz complained. “And the worst thing you can be in Minnesota is a racist.”

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