House Republicans sent a letter Monday to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos that challenged his company’s decision to allow the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center determine which charities qualify for AmazonSmile.
At the same time, the Republican National Committee announced that it approved a resolution “refuting the legitimacy of the Southern Poverty Law Center to identify hate groups” because the SPLC “puts conservative groups or voices at risk of attack,” The Federalist reported.
Shoppers who buy on Amazon can use the link to the AmazonSmile website so that 0.5 percent of the value of their purchases will be contributed to pre-approved charities, but charitable organizations have to be deemed eligible to receive donations.
SPLC participates in part of the process that determines which charities are acceptable and which are “hate groups,” even after the extreme-left civil-rights operation came under fire itself last year for promoting a culture of racism and misogyny within its own ranks.
“The SPLC has baselessly labeled some conservative charitable organizations ‘hate groups,’
alongside actual extremist organizations such as neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan,” the House Republicans wrote.
AmazonSmile considers Planned Parenthood a charitable organization, despite its role in the mass slaughter of pre-natal children through its abortion clinics.
Yet, Amazon’s shoppers cannot donate to groups that protect traditional values and conservative politics, such as the Alliance Defending Freedom or the Family Research Council.
SPLC’s political attacks on the Family Research Council previously led to terrifying real-world repercussions.
Floyd Lee Corkins, a man who was radicalized by the SPLC, went into the FRC’s Washington, D.C. headquarters with a 9mm handgun, 50 rounds, and 15 Chick-Fil-A sandwiches. He said he was targeting FRC because SPLC labeled them as anti-gay.
Corkins admitted that his intent was to “kill as many as possible and smear the Chick-Fil-A sandwiches in victims’ faces, and kill the guard.”
The security guard prevented him from harming employees, even though Corkins fired a few shots.
ADF and FRC have been excluded because the SPLC declared them to be “hate groups,” without any evidence.
“In this way, Amazon’s reliance on the SPLC as a barometer to determine the eligibility of charitable organizations on AmazonSmile serves to discriminate against conservative views,” the House Republicans wrote.
The group asked for more information about how Amazon determines eligibility for the AmazonSmile program and about the role that SPLC plays in the process.
The 15 representatives in total who signed onto the letter were led by Jim Jordan, R-Ohio—the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law—and Mike Johnson, R-La.—the ranking member on the Subcommittee on the Constitution, and Citizenship Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
The RNC resolution resolved, “That the SPLC is a radical organization and that the federal government should not view this organization as a legitimate foundation equipped to provide actionable information to DHS or any other government agency.”
SPLC renounced the RNC’s resolution as an “attack.”
SPLC President and CEO Margaret Huang said extremists are infiltrating the Republican Party and that President Donald Trump cannot combat their efforts.
“This resolution comes at a moment when Trump wants to argue to the American people that he should be trusted to combat bigotry,” she said. “Our answer to that suggestion is a resounding no.”
