Congressman puts CEO of Southern Poverty Law Center in hot seat over past comments on white supremacy

Southern Poverty Law Center CEO Bryan Fair and U.S. Congressman Brandon Gill.

The acting CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center faced pointed questions from a congressman on Tuesday during a hearing with the House Judiciary Committee over his organization's incendiary positions on white supremacy and abortion, among other controversial declarations the beleaguered group has made in recent years.

U.S. Representative Brandon Gill of Texas put Bryan Fair, the acting CEO of the SPLC, in the hot seat over the group's wild claims about the relationship between a pro-life agenda and white supremacy. 

"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?" Gill asked Fair, who proceeded to say he "can’t answer that question yes or no."

Gill then pressed Fair on some statistics. “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?” 

Fair stammered before saying, "SPLC supports reproductive liberty."

Gill also questioned Fair about Graham Platner, the Democrat Senate candidate from Maine who won the primary there on Tuesday and will face longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins in the November general election. Gill held up a photo showing Platner's totenkopf tattoo and asked Fair whether he thought the tattoo should disqualify Platner from serving in the Senate. Fair at first dodged the question and then, after Gill read him what the SPLC has said in the past about the Nazi symbol, admitted that "no" he wouldn't want someone with that tattoo as a senator. 

Fair was appearing before the committee to answer questions about the federal indictment against the SLPC, in which the group is accused of illegally and secretly funding racism and using donated funds to foment racial divisions in the U.S. According to The New York Post, Fair dodged almost all of the questions he was asked about the indictment, including inquiries about the SLPC having funded the KKK.

Below, watch his respond to U.S. Representative Lance Gooden, also of Texas, who questioned Fair on why mainstream conservative groups, like Turning Point USA and others, have been designated as hate groups by the SLPC, and why violent leftist groups are left off the SLPC's so-called hate map.