Letter signed by nearly 2 dozen GOP lawmakers highlights role of SPLC, other groups for ‘targeting’ conservatives
A Republican senator from Texas is calling on Congress to establish a special committee to investigate what he calls the “money, influence, and power behind the radical Left’s assault on America and the rule of law.”
In a letter dated Sept. 11, Rep. Chip Roy was joined by nearly two dozen lawmakers, including Texas Republican Reps. Keith Self and Brandon Gill in urging House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to create a standalone panel with subpoena power, staffed by members with prosecutorial and law enforcement experience.
“Enough is enough,” Roy wrote. “We must follow the money to identify the perpetrators of the coordinated anti-American assaults being carried out against us and take all steps under the law necessary to stop them.”
Under Roy’s proposal, a House committee would investigate organizations, donors, media and public officials who are allegedly driving these attacks, and would have, he wrote, “full subpoena powers and authority to deliver results.”
The push follows the assassination of Christian conservative activist Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA and TPUSA Faith, which has intensified national debates over political violence and polarization. Kirk was killed last Wednesday at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, after allegedly being shot by 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who has a trans-identifying partner and harbored leftist political views.
Roy’s letter cites Kirk’s murder, the attempted assassinations of President Donald Trump in 2024, and the 2017 shooting of Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise at a Republican congressional baseball practice as evidence of a “sustained breakdown of law and order” driven by anti-American ideology.
Pointing to the far-Left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Roy noted that it placed “targets” on conservative groups like the Family Research Council and TPUSA through its “Hate Map.” The SPLC placed Kirk on its “Hatewatch” map before he was killed last week at Utah Valley University.
“We have seen targets placed on the Family Research Council and Charlie Kirk by the [SPLC] only to witness shootings toward each, including the tragic assassination of Charlie […], after being placed on the SPLC’s notorious ‘Hate Map’ three months ago,” wrote Roy. “We have seen dangerous networks like Antifa organize, fund, and deploy sophisticated terror campaigns attacking law enforcement and destroying American cities.”
The SPLC released the following statement in response to Roy’s letter, claiming that it monitors extremists: “We must have meaningful national conversation about violence and polarization in America. Blaming organizations that monitor extremism distracts from the urgent work of addressing the conditions that allow hate and violence to grow.”
Roy’s letter also ties “soft-on-crime” policies and illegal immigration to rising violence, citing the murders of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston, and, most recently, Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a North Carolina train. Roy alleged these incidents stem from coordinated efforts by leftist groups like the Wren Collective and George Soros-funded organizations, which he noted support lenient prosecutors and judges.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, described the 22-year-old suspect in Kirk’s killing as having a “leftist ideology.”
“We can no longer pretend to be bound together by shared ideals when a well-funded, vitriolic cadre of our fellow Americans and foreign interests are at war with the very values of faith in God, fidelity to our Constitution, and respect for the principles of liberty and Western Civilization that define us as Americans — including, notably, the free speech practiced and exemplified by Charlie Kirk,” Roy wrote.
Some Democratic leaders, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have condemned political violence in the aftermath of Kirk’s shooting, as well as actress Jamie Lee Curtis, whose son identifies as female.
