‘DANGEROUS’: SPLC Hearing Witness Slams Charlie Kirk Statements

Maya Wiley, the Democrat witness for the House Judiciary Committee, testified before members of Congress that Charlie Kirk made “dangerous” statements preceding his assassination.

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday to address allegations of fraud against the left-leaning nonprofit titled, “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate.”

The Daily Signal’s Tyler O’Neil, who has long faulted the SPLC for putting mainstream conservative and Christian groups on a “hate map” alongside Klan chapters, testified as a witness for the hearing. Alongside him sat Maya Wiley, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, an organization that endorses the SPLC and places it among a coalition of groups the Leadership Conference supports.

The SPLC added Turning Point USA, Kirk’s organization, to the “hate map” last year, a few months before his assassination.

Because of Wiley’s connection to the SPLC, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. asked Wiley about what the SPLC claimed about Kirk. “Would you agree with the statement that Charlie Kirk was a dangerous extremist?”

Wiley took a sigh before answering. “I can’t answer the question that way,” she said. “I can certainly say that statements that I am aware of that Mr. Kirk made were ones that I would consider to be dangerous.”

She added, “I am referring to the ones that he made about black women and black communities. The stereotyping that stereotyped a whole group of people.”

While critics often accused Kirk of racism because of his opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in universities, commentators such as Ben Shaprio often praised him for keeping racists and antisemites out of Turning Point. When TPUSA’s national field director’s texts revealing racist comments toward African Americans were leaked, Kirk took immediate action.

“Turning Point assessed the situation and took decisive action within 72 hours of being made aware of the issue,” Kirk told The New Yorker.

In May 2025, when the SPLC added Turning Point to the “hate map,” SPLC released a report called “Turning Point USA: A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.” This article accused Kirk and his organization of embracing a “white nationalist conspiracy theory” and enforcing a “social order rooted in white supremacy.”

The article warned that Kirk wanted to “restore America’s biblical values,” which is an “extreme, authoritarian vision for the country that threatens the foundation of our democracy.”

But Kirk was not only an authoritarian, white nationalist conspiracy theorist, according to the SPLC. He also was a “male supremacist” whose organization exploits “fear that white Christian supremacy is under attack by nefarious actors, including immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, and civil rights activists.”

Just four months later, Charlie Kirk was assassinated for his alleged hate. Tyler Robinson, who allegedly shot Kirk, texted his roommate, “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out,” and “the guy spreads too much hate.”

In an April article titled, “Why I support the Southern Poverty Law Center,” Wiley alluded that the SPLC indictment is merely a part of Trump’s attempt to attack civil rights. She said, “This indictment is not just an attack on SPLC. It is an attack on advocacy against hate and extremism and on enemies of organizations Donald Trump and Trump supporters have embraced.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), also testified before the committee. In 2012, the FRC was targeted for an attempted mass shooting. According to Perkins, the SPLC “may not have pulled the trigger, but they inspired the gunman…then of course, Charlie Kirk, who also was targeted by SPLC was assassinated. So there is culpability that this list—this ideological labelling—leads to violence.”