Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) on Tuesday gave a masterclass in witness examination while questioning the Interim President and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Bryan Fair, exposing the organization’s hypocrisy and anti-conservative bias.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, Fair testified in the House Judiciary Committee’s probe of the SPLC’s funding of hate and extremism amid a Department of Justice indictment for funneling millions in tax-exempt funds to neo-Nazi groups and manufacturing the hate they claim to combat.
The indictment charges the SPLC with wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan went off on the SPLC in his opening remarks with a scathing rebuke of the organization’s incitement of extremism to push hoaxes and political investigations on everyday conservatives. “They became the standard, the source for determining who was a hate group,” and used their power over the Biden Justice Department and FBI to target conservative groups like Moms for Liberty, Turning Point USA, Alliance Defending Freedom, and pro-life Catholics, Jordan said.
WATCH: Jim Jordan Drops BOMB, Reveals SPLC Coordinated with Biden Regime and Paid $4 MILLION to Manufacture Hate Groups, Incite Violence
Gill questioned the SPLC’s smears against conservatives with a tale of two tattoos: War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “Deus Vult” (God wills it) and Jerusalem Cross tattoos, and Maine Senate Candidate Graham Platner’s Nazi tattoo.
The SPLC describes the phrase “Deus Vult” as a “dog whistle for the extremist right.” It describes the other symbol, the Jerusalem Cross, as “crusader imagery” associated with the far-right and anti-Muslim sentiment. The SPLC further claims, “Christian Identity (CID) is an antisemitic, racist theology that gained a foothold during the Civil Rights Era and reached a prominent position within the racist right by the 1980s. “Christian” in name only, CID doctrine claims that white people, not Jewish individuals, are the true Israelites favored by God in the Bible. The movement has maintained a contentious relationship with evangelicals and fundamentalists, who believe that the return of Jewish people to Israel is essential for fulfilling end-time prophecy.”
However, Fair pretended he couldn’t answer questions about Platner’s Nazi Totenkopf tattoo, feigning ignorance about the symbolism and refusing to say whether the Democrat’s tattoo is racist. He similarly pretended to know nothing about Hegseth’s tattoo, which Democrats and SPLC-aligned groups previously claimed was a “White Supremacist” tattoo, disqualifying Hegseth from serving as Secretary of War.
Gill also grilled Fair on the history of abortion and the SPLC’s claims that “restricting and banning abortion is a tool that the far right uses to maintain white supremacy and to reinforce a specific kind of family and social structure” and that “White supremacist and antigovernment militias have long played important roles in the anti-abortion movement.”
WATCH:
“Mr. Fair, do you recognize the tattoo on this man’s chest? This is Secretary Hegseth,” Gill said, adding, “Your organization has referred to it as essentially a hate image. Do you agree with that assessment?”
Fair denied being familiar with the symbol and said he has no opinion on the symbol.
When asked about Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s tattoo, Fair also denied familiarity with the symbol. “I’m not an expert on tattoos,” he said before Gill explained, “This is a tattoo on Maine Democrat Senate candidate Graham Plattner’s chest. That’s the Nazi SS death head tattoo.”
Asked for his opinion on that, Fair responded, “If it’s what you say, if it’s a Nazi symbol, we oppose Nazis.”
“Do you think if somebody got a Nazi tattoo on their chest that’s indicative that they might be a Nazi?” Gill further responded. But Fair did not answer the question, instead saying, “You’d have to ask Mr. Platner why he has that symbol. I said that if it is a symbol of Nazism, we oppose Nazis.”
When pressed, he said it “may well be” indicative that Platner holds Nazi sentiments. Fair continued evading the questions, claiming that he’s not sure if someone who isn’t a Nazi would get a Nazi tattoo, but admitting that he doesn’t know anybody who “has a Nazi tattoo on their chest but is not a Nazi.”
He further declined to say whether he thinks someone with such a tattoo should serve in the United States Senate, only saying, “I wouldn’t vote for that person.”
“I’m not sure where the line of questions is going,” he said when asked if Platner’s tattoo should “disqualify him politically.” “If you’re asking me if the SPLC opposes Nazis and Nazi symbols, the answer is yes,” he added. Finally, after several minutes, Gill forced Fair to admit he “wouldn’t want somebody with a tattoo like that in the Senate.”
“Shifting gears a little bit, Gill continued, “your organization said that restricting and banning abortion is a tool that the far right uses to maintain White supremacy. Do you believe that pro-lifers are White supremacists?”
After refusing to answer the question, Fair stated, “What I think is that reproductive liberty is a right that every woman should enjoy.”
“How many babies in the United States that are aborted are black?” Gill asked, but Fair didn’t respond. Gill went on to state, “About 40% of abortions nationwide are of black babies. Blacks represent about 13% of the population. Does that sound like something a White supremacist would oppose?”
“What I would say again is that SPLC supports reproductive—” Fair said as Gill interrupted, saying, “Calling somebody a White supremacist is a pretty serious charge, isn’t it? I mean, I would think you would be able to defend that if your organization says that. You clearly seem unable to.”
Mr. Gill, I’m not sure why you would think I’m able to do anything,” the President and CEO of the SPLC laughably claimed. Gill fired back, “Because you’re the president of the SPLC, which labels pro-lifers as racists.” He continued, “Does your organization just hurl around epithets like that without any justification?”
As Fair attempted to evade the question again, Gill interrupted again, and Rep. Jamie Raskin lost it, shouting, “What’s he referring to? And can he let the witness answer the question? This is outrageous!”
After a heated back and forth, Gill closed his examination of the witnesses, asking Dr. Alveda King, “Are pro-lifers White supremacists?”
King responded with the only sensible take, telling Gill, “Pro-lifers cannot be white supremacists. Pro-lifers believe in life from the womb to the tomb and beyond. Pro-lifers fight for every baby in the womb regardless of skin color. We have been aborted as blacks in America disproportionately. And so the white supremacists are Planned Parenthood, who admitted that they do have racist underpinning with an agenda to reduce the black population by abortion.”
Raskin went on to introduce an article about “The long history of the anti-abortion movements links to white supremacists” into the record.
The post WATCH: Rep. Brandon Gill Grills CEO of SPLC Over Hegseth Tattoo vs Graham Platner Tattoo, Calling Pro-Lifers White Supremacists appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.