Southern Poverty Law Center attacks Turning Point USA with 'cheap smear' in latest hysterical 'extremism' report



Liberal activists and their fellow travelers in business, government, and media frequently cite the Southern Poverty Law Center as an authority on what qualifies as a hate group or an extremist organization.

That's despite — or because of — the SPLC's heavy left-wing bias, the frequency with which it smears law-abiding conservatives as "extremists," and its link to alleged domestic terrorism.

'First, they wanted you to affirm, and then they wanted you to celebrate, and then they wanted you to participate.'

Exuding liberal sanctimony with an air of legitimacy helps keep the SPLC — a nonprofit sued numerous times for defamation, accused by one former staffer of exaggerating hate to "bilk" donors, and given an F-rating by Charity Watch — awash in cash.

After all, what's not to like when the SPLC largely fundraises on the premise that it is "exposing hate and injustice"?

True to form, the SPLC smeared agential conservatives in its latest annual hate and extremism report.

This time around, the smear merchants focused their attack on Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA, characterizing it as a pro-Christian extremist group with an "authoritarian vision for the country that threatens the foundation of our democracy."

But Kirk wasn't having it, responding in a statement that "the SPLC has added Turning Point to their ridiculous 'hate group' list, right next to the KKK and neo-Nazis, a cheap smear from a washed-up org that's been fleecing scared grandmas for decades."

"Their game plan? Scare financial institutions into debanking us, pressure schools to cancel us, and demonize us so some unhinged lunatic feels justified targeting us," continued Kirk. "But it's 2025, and nobody with a functioning brain buys their garbage anymore. The SPLC is a laughingstock, a hollowed-out husk of an organization that's been exposed as a grift time and time again."

According to the SPLC — whose recent top targets include Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok fame and the parental rights advocacy group Moms for Liberty — TPUSA is "emblematic" of the American political right's supposed embrace of "aggressive state and federal power to enforce a social order rooted in white supremacy" against a backdrop of "patriarchal Christian supremacy dedicated to eroding the value of inclusive democracy and public institutions."

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RomoloTavani/iStock/Getty Images Plus

When trying to make the case that TPUSA somehow is an extremist outfit or at the very least extremist-adjacent, SPLC contributor Rachael Fugardi, aided by a pair of DEI-credentialed researchers, noted that Kirk:

  • dared to link the health of liberty in America to the religiosity of its people;
  • suggested that Democrats love what God hates;
  • championed motherhood and suggested women should get married and start having children at a younger age;
  • highlighted that in the case of non-straight activism, "First, they wanted you to affirm, and then they wanted you to celebrate, and then they wanted you to participate. And if you don't, they are willing to destroy your life";
  • suggested that Americans should buy weapons and ammunition; and
  • warned that "native born Americans are being replaced by foreigners."

The report also clutched pearls over TPUSA's supposed encouragement of "parents to be fearful the government was harming their children in schools" and its criticism of critical race theory and LGBT propaganda in the classroom.

'DEI narratives can engender a hostile attribution bias and heighten racial suspicion, prejudicial attitudes, authoritarian policing, and support for punitive behaviors.'

This desperate attempt on the part of the SPLC to paint Kirk and TPUSA as extreme might have less to do with the conservatives' views and more to do with their political effectiveness in changing minds and curbing the abuses of the left — as well as their alignment with President Donald Trump.

TPUSA videos notched billions of views in the lead-up to the 2024 election — and it was at this precise time that its members were engaging young Americans on college campuses across the country and promoting Trump. That momentum and engagement still have not tapered off.

Kirk stressed on X, "Being on their list is a badge of honor. It means they're terrified that we're so effective. Keep crying, SPLC — America’s done with your scam."

While evidently worried about TPUSA, the SPLC also warned of the "merging of anti-immigration and anti-LGBTQ+ activism with fear of demographic displacement" and framed efforts to dismantle the racist DEI regime as a campaign to "whitewash American society and protect white supremacy."

Yet, a study published late last year by the Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University concluded that "DEI narratives can engender a hostile attribution bias and heighten racial suspicion, prejudicial attitudes, authoritarian policing, and support for punitive behaviors in the absence of evidence for a transgression deserving punishment."

RELATED: Damning study reveals what DEI does to people — and unsurprisingly, it's really bad

Race-obsessive activist Ibram Kendi, originally Ibram Henry Rogers. Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Netflix

Having evidently missed or ignored this damning insight into the divisive and dangerous nature of DEI, the SPLC claimed that DEI initiatives "are essential in ensuring pluralism, reducing inequities that spur division, and promoting democracy."

Working off the basis that DEI is necessary — and necessarily good — the leftist outfit attacked those attempting to eliminate it, including Moms for Liberty, normalcy advocate Robby Starbuck, Republican states and officials, and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Christopher Rufo.

The SPLC also conducted a number of drive-by hits in its annual report, deeming, for instance, the Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom a "hate group" and suggesting that reports indicating the Obama administration worked to debank conservative clients was somehow a "false narrative."

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Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, and Mike Davis of the Article III Project revealed Monday that a New York Times reporter reached out to them for comment regarding an upcoming hit piece about so-called "misinformation" — the likely objective of which is to get conservative commentators demonetized or possibly removed from YouTube.

Shapiro pre-emptively attacked the paper and its apparent collaborators at the leftist outfit Media Matters, while Carlson shared screenshots of his fiery textual exchange with Times reporter Nico Grant.

"Would I like to participate in your attempt to censor me?" Carlson wrote to Grant. "No thanks. But I do hope you'll quote what I wrote above and also note that I told you to f*** off, which I am now doing. Thanks."

Grant apparently opened with an introduction and the following note to Carlson on Monday: "I wanted to give you an opportunity to comment for an upcoming article that takes a look at how political commentators have discussed the upcoming election on YouTube. We rely on an analysis conducted by researchers at Media Matters for America."

Media Matters for America is a leftist organization founded by Democratic operative David Brock. It claims to document "conservative misinformation throughout the media" and to notify "activists, journalists, pundits, and the general public about instances of misinformation, providing them with the resources to rebut false claims and to take direct action against offending media institutions."

Media Matters, now led by Angelo Carusone — the former Democratic National Committee employee who fought to get Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck ousted from Fox News and was responsible for the "#DumpTrump" campaign in 2012 — now serves as an attack dog for the Democratic Party, characterizing dissenting views as "misinformation."

'So the New York Times is working with a left wing hate group to silence critics of the Democratic Party?'

Media Matters is presently in hot water, as Elon Musk's social platform X sued the leftist organization last year for alleged defamation. Judge Reed O'Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas denied Media Matters' request to have that lawsuit dismissed in August.

Grant asked Carlson to comment on the following points, which will apparently be including in the planned Times piece:

  • "Media Matters identified 286 YouTube videos between May and August that contained election misinformation, including narratives that have been debunked or are not supported with credible evidence."
  • "Researchers identified videos posted by you in those four months that contain election misinformation."
  • "We feature a clip of you saying: '...All the sadness we've seen after the clearly stolen election. All these bad things happen, but people I know love each other more.'"

Shapiro and Davis appear to have been asked to comment on the same points but on different quotes.

'These outlets are beneath contempt.'

Grant gave away the plot with three follow-up questions, in all three cases, about the conservatives' membership in the YouTube Partner Program, their track records of demonetization, and history of notes from YouTube regarding "misinformation."

Carlson, wise to Grant's apparent scheme, responded, "So the New York Times is working with a left wing hate group to silence critics of the Democratic Party? Please ask yourself why you're participating in it. This is why you got into journalism? It's shameful."

"I hope you're filled with guilt and self-loathing for sending me a text like this," continued Carlson. "Please quote me."

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales said of Carlson's reply to Grant, "Epic."

Elon Musk tweeted, "Perfect response."

Mike Needham's forward-looking conservative think tank America 2100 tweeted, "These outlets are beneath contempt. 1) Powerful activist groups (Media Matters) put out enemy hit lists. 2) The press (New York Times) publishes the names to send a signal to Big Tech. 3) Big Tech dutifully censors the enemies. They're the enforcement arm of the Left."

Conservative filmmaker Robby Starbuck wrote, "YouTube needs to be very careful how they respond to this story or risk a massive exodus from their site. Treating right wing content creators differently is going to become increasingly an offense that loses you a lot of business. People have alternatives now."

Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of the video platform Rumble, noted, "The corporate media is on their campaign to deplatform as many conservative voices as possible. This type of activist garbage is not possible on Rumble. @TuckerCarlson, we have your back."

Blaze News reached out to Grant and Media Matters for comment as well as for their definitions of "misinformation" but did not receive responses by deadline.

Grant has set his X page to private, so that his past tweets are now protected.

Shapiro referred to the anticipated Times-Media Matters hit piece as an "October surprise."

"What, precisely, is NYT doing?" wrote Shapiro. "It's perfectly obvious: using research from Media Matters, a radical Left-wing organization whose sole purpose is destroying conservative media ... in order to pressure YouTube to demonetize and penalize any and all conservatives ONE WEEK FROM THE ELECTION."

While noting that he supported the view that Biden won the 2020 election, Shapiro emphasized that the Constitution guarantees the right of Americans to suggest otherwise.

"This is totally scandalous. In 2020, the legacy media shut down dissemination of the Hunter Biden laptop story and laundered the claim that it was all Russian disinformation, all to get Joe Biden elected," continued Shapiro. "In 2024, they're even more brazen: they're openly trying to intimidate YouTube, one of the most dominant news platforms in America, into shutting down anyone who isn't pro-Kamala."

Shapiro worked his way up to echoing Carlson's sentiment, concluding, "The New York Times wants comment? Here's my comment: kindly, go f*** yourself."

U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt responded by echoing the defiant, nearly assassinated Republican president, "Fight, fight, fight!"

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'He outright LIED': The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg is back with another 'dishonest' Trump smear — but it's quickly debunked



The Atlantic's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, is at it again, smearing former President Donald Trump with anonymous sources and providing ammunition for Democrat political attacks ahead of Election Day. Unfortunately for Goldberg and his anti-Trump narrative, people who were actually in the room at the time the remarks were supposedly made have indicated that nothing of the sort happened — that it's more fake news.

Army Private Vanessa Guillén — posthumously promoted to the rank of specialist — was murdered inside the armory at Fort Hood in April 2020 by a fellow soldier.

Goldberg claimed that Trump volunteered to help financially with Guillén's funeral but then raged upon learning the total cost. According to the hit piece, Trump said, "It doesn't cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f***ing Mexican!" and ordered his then-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, not to pay.

Meadows, a leading character in Goldberg's narrative, noted Tuesday, "I was in the discussions featured in the Atlantic's latest hit piece against President Trump. Let me say this. Any suggestion that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false."

'President Donald Trump absolutely did not say that.'

"He was nothing but kind, gracious, and wanted to make sure that the military and the U.S. government did right by Vanessa Guillen and her family," added Meadows.

Ben Williamson, a former senior communications adviser for the Trump White House and spokesman for Meadows, provided insight into the extent of Goldberg's dishonesty, highlighting the substantial disparity between Meadows' statement, as provided to the Atlantic, and what was ultimately printed in the final piece.

Williamson indicated that he shared the following statement from Meadows with the Atlantic via text:

President Donald Trump absolutely did not say that. He was nothing but kind, gracious, and wanting to make sure that the military and the U.S. government did right by Gloria Guillen and her daughter Vanessa Guillen. As for the allegation that he told me to refuse payment: That is not true.

Williamson noted that the "Atlantic translated that comment to 'didn't hear Trump say it.' Treat this dishonest piece accordingly."

'He used and exploited my clients, and Vanessa Guillen's murder ... for cheap political gain.'

Trump spokesman Alex Pfeiffer similarly relayed a narrative-killing statement to the Atlantic from then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller's chief of staff, Kash Patel, but it appears to have made it into the article unscathed:

As someone who was present in the room with President Trump, he strongly urged that Spc. Vanessa Guillen's grieving family should not have to bear the cost of any funeral arrangements, even offering to personally pay himself in order to honor her life and sacrifice. In addition, President Trump was able to have the Department of Defense designate her death as occurring "in the line of duty," which gave her full military honors and provided her family access to benefits, services, and complete financial assistance.

Natalie Khawam, the attorney for the Guillén family quoted in the Atlantic hit piece, characterized Goldberg as a liar.

"After having dealt with hundreds of reporters in my legal career, this is unfortunately the first time I have to go on record and call out Jeffrey Goldberg," wrote Khawam. "Not only did he misrepresent our conversation but he outright LIED in HIS sensational story. More importantly, he used and exploited my clients, and Vanessa Guillen's murder ... for cheap political gain."

Extra to noting the curious timing of the hit piece, Khawam tweeted, "Not only did Trump support our military, he also invited my clients to the Oval Office and supported the I Am Vanessa Guillen bill too."

Goldberg's smear was so unbelievable that even Guillén's sister, Mayra, put her foot down Tuesday, calling out the Atlantic for its dishonesty and ghoulish attempt to exploit the service member's death for political purposes.

"Wow. I don't appreciate how you are exploiting my sister's death for politics," wrote Mayra Guillén. "Hurtful & disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members. President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today."

Even though Goldberg's report has significant credibility issues, the Democratic National Committee circulated it widely as though it were true — just as it circulated Goldberg's last election-time hit piece.

Weeks ahead of the 2020 election, Goldberg claimed that during a trip to Paris in 2018, Trump called fallen soldiers "suckers" and "losers."

Despite its liberal skew, even Snopes acknowledged there was "no evidence of an audio or video recording of the remarks in question, nor was there any documentation, such as transcripts or presidential notes, to independently confirm or deny the alleged quotes' authenticity."

Blaze News senior editor for politics Christopher Bedford noted shortly after Goldberg's 2020 hit piece debuted that Goldberg had centered his piece on "secondary-source rumor-mongering" even though it was contradicted by substantial primary sources, including both people and documents.

"That should have earned a swift no-publish call, but instead their qualms went completely unmentioned," wrote Bedford. "An unskeptical belief the president is a bad man who must be defeated has led to discarding an ever-growing number of essential journalistic practices. It's the reason more and more Americans don't trust their media — and it's a good one."

None of those problems stopped Democrats from running with a story they'd already known was coming. The 2020 hit piece was published on a Thursday night, but by Friday morning, MSNBC's "Morning Joe" had "the exclusive" on a polished Democrat attack ad featuring veterans attacking Trump over specific allegations in the article.

Laurene Powell Jobs — the president of Emerson Collective, which owns the Atlantic — just happens to be one of Kamala Harris' biggest financial backers and has been shoveling cash her way since 2003. Goldberg's article ostensibly serves as a different kind of campaign support.

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Leftist false-flagger tries to take down Christopher Rufo — but there's a major problem with her narrative



Lauren Windsor of Robert Creamer's Democrat-aligned Democracy Partners has repeatedly attempted to kneecap prominent conservatives and Republicans, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Windsor recently tried to take down Christopher Rufo, a senior Manhattan Institute fellow and New College of Florida board member whose success in combating critical race theory, DEI, and academic dishonesty has made him a popular bogeyman on the left.

Despite fellow travelers' apparent desperation to believe in Windsor's latest narrative, it has quickly unraveled.

In August 2015, hackers targeted a website for would-be adulterers, Ashley Madison, and released over 25 gigabytes of data. On Thursday, Politico reported that an email address belonging to North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) was among those registered on the website.

A spokesman for Robinson claimed that the Republican had not made an account on the site, which virtually anyone apparently could have done in his name.

In response to the hit piece, Windsor tweeted, "Are there other prominent conservatives on Ashley Madison? I may know of one."

The Democratic activist followed up with a message stating, "Email address belonging to conservative Chris Rufo found in Ashley Madison data dump."

'Leave my wife and children out of it, you disgusting hack.'

Windsor tried to make something of this supposed discovery, advancing the suggestion that "Rufo appears to have no qualms about attempting to fool around on the mother of his children."

She did, however, admit in subsequent messages that it is "possible that someone else registered his email to the site" and that at the time of the leaks, Rufo was unmarried.

When Windsor pressed Rufo for comment, the conservative apparently responded, "No, but I heard these guys did," along with a picture of the fake white supremacist rally Windsor helped stage with the Lincoln Project in 2021 to smear then-candidate Glenn Youngkin ahead of the Virginia gubernatorial election.

Extra to staging at least one false-flag event, Windsor — who serves as the executive director of the Democratic-aligned dark-money group American Family Voices — has spent time in recent years attempting to dox Project Veritas operatives and to take down others holding up Democrats' agenda.

For instance, in June, she tried in vain to provide Democrats with ammunition to take down Justice Alito, having posed as a conservative at an event in hopes of getting Justice Alito and his wife on tape saying something damning.

Rufo publicly called out Windsor, writing, "This is complete bull****, as you admit later in the threat. I have never used 'Ashley Madison.' If you want to attack me or my politics that's fine, but leave my wife and children out of it, you disgusting hack."

The Manhattan Institute fellow added in a subsequent message that Windsor's accusation was "verifiably false," stating:

This is verifiably false. I have never used this website and Lauren Windsor has provided zero evidence to the contrary. Moreover, her specific accusations are easily debunked. I was single in 2014, so the insinuation that I signed up for 'a website designed for married people seeking affairs' — or, even more grotesquely, that my son, whom I first met and then adopted years after this date, signed up for it using my credit card — is a total fabrication and a disgraceful slander against a child. Lauren Windsor has previously admitted to perpetrating the Youngkin Nazi hoax and this is an equally fake and partisan smear. A truly repulsive human being.

Rufo revealed Friday that his legal representatives at Dhillon Law Group contacted Windsor with a cease and desist letter, advising her to preserve evidence.

Krista Baughman, who runs Dhillon's First Amendment and defamation practice, noted, "It defies credulity that Mr. Rufo would register for a dating website marketed to people who are married in June 2014, when Mr. Rufo was an unmarried man," adding that Rufo met his wife in 2015, married her the following year, then legally adopted his son.

Rufo made clear he was contemplating suing Windsor.

Although Windsor has deleted one of her messages, specifically a quote tweet claiming that Rufo blamed his son, she has since amplified the suggestion by Steven Monacelli of the leftist blog Texas Observer that location data possibly supports her theory.

Harmeet K. Dhillon wrote, "Do NOT mess with our clients."

Dr. Jordan Peterson responded to the smear effort, writing, "Imagine that / Leftists tried to cancel @realchrisrufo / With lies / And stupid ill-thought through lies / Adding the sin of voluntary incompetence / To the sin of evil intent."

Seth Dillon, CEO of the Babylon Bee, noted that "it's a common tactic for leftists to sign conservatives up for porn sites and LGBTQ newsletters and other garbage like that as a way of trolling us."

"It isn't just annoying, though; it also gives them something to point to when data breaches happen later on. 'Oh look, we found your email on the gay dating site we signed you up for 2 years ago. Explain that!'" added Dillon.

It appears that some of Windsor's more trollish detractors have evidenced the ease with which a personal email can be used by strangers to sign up for websites, creating an OnlyFans page with her name and email.

When asked by Monacelli if the OnlyFans account belonged to her, Windsor replied, "There are plenty of people posting about signing my email up for sites."

Blaze News reached out to Rufo for comment but did not receive a response by deadline.

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The Trump Gamble: Unpacking NYT's Trump Coverage | Stu Does America Ep 830
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The Trump Gamble: Unpacking NYT's Trump Coverage | Stu Does America Ep 830