Charlie Kirk Bluntly Delivers Message That SPLC Never Expected After It Labels Turning Point USA ‘A Hate Group’

Founder of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk appeared on Fox News Tuesday and wasted no time firing back after the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) officially designated his conservative youth organization as a “hate group” in its latest annual report.

The SPLC’s 2024 report, released Thursday, identified 1,371 extremist groups and said that their growing influence is fracturing communities and undermining U.S. democracy. Kirk discussed the matter during an appearance on “The Ingraham Angle.”

“Understand that they’re literally putting high school chapters of ours on a hate group next to the KKK and next to neo-Nazi groups,” Kirk told Laura Ingraham.

Kirk said that the SPLC’s label has real-world consequences, pointing to the 2012 attack on the Family Research Council, where a shooter cited the SPLC’s hate list as his inspiration. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins partly blamed the SPLC’s rhetoric for inspiring the shooting at his organization’s headquarters.

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“Remember that there was a shooter that went to the Family Research Council years ago, inspired by the SPLC list. This is them trying to make us basically surrender at Turning Point USA,” Kirk added. Rather than back down, Kirk said that Turning Point USA would double its efforts.

“We’re going to do the opposite, and our students are only going to lean in even more. But they can’t debate us on our ideas. They cannot have dialogue. They cannot actually go onto the merits of why they are right or why we might be wrong,” Kirk said. (RELATED: Charlie Kirk Roasts ‘Compliant Little Beta’ David Hogg For Gushing Over Jasmine Crockett)

Kirk explained why he thinks Turning Point made the list.

“They must smear us with the age-old one-liner that you are a racist or that you are a hater. And they’re finally realizing the power of Turning Point USA, which is why they put us on the list,” Kirk said.

The SPLC has drawn similar criticism in the past. In 2023, the SPLC added parental rights groups like Moms for Liberty and Parents Defending Education to its list of 1,225 so-called hate and extremist organizations, sparking backlash from conservatives who accused the group of smearing mainstream advocacy.

In 2023, former SPLC staffer Bob Moser called the organization a “highly profitable scam” that betrayed its own stated values. In a scathing essay published by The New Yorker, Moser accused the SPLC of exploiting donors while ignoring internal issues like racial discrimination and sexual harassment.

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