Opinion

My friend Charlie Kirk saw the danger of the SPLC long before its indictment

Failed assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner only underscores the seriousness with which we must approach the radicalizing propaganda network of the far left

By Andrew Kolvet Fox News

Published April 29, 2026 5:00am EDT

Facebook Twitter Threads Flipboard Comments Print Email Add Fox News on Google

close

Video

SPLC accused of funding extremists and pushing false narratives

Steve Harrigan reports on the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) being accused of funding extremist groups and facing a DOJ indictment for financial fraud.

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Last week, the Department of Justice 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 heart of the alleged scheme was a shocking operation in which the SPLC paid "informants" embedded inside the very extremist groups it claimed to oppose, including the Nazi Party of America, the KKK and Aryan Nations. The indictments reveal these characters to be more than just moles, but rather the leaders, organizers and key influencers that make these groups work.

As a conservative, I’ve watched these revelations with a sense of righteous vindication. For years, those of us on the right have viewed the SPLC as a caricature of left-wing overreach and moral panic, but we also shouldn’t dismiss its poisonous influence in progressive circles. Saturday’s failed assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner only underscores the seriousness with which we must approach the radicalizing propaganda network of the far left, especially groups like the SPLC, which wield outsize influence. As history tells us, that influence can come with deadly consequences.

In 2010, the SPLC added the Family Research Council to its widely circulated "Hate Map." Less than 22 months later, an armed gunman entered the organization’s Washington, D.C., headquarters intending to carry out a mass shooting. He was heroically stopped by a security guard and later admitted he........

© Fox News