James Lynch writes for National Review Online that the FBI is responding to a left-wing group’s recent dubious action.
The FBI is severing ties with the Anti-Defamation League for designating Turning Point USA as an extremist group, a listing that came long before the assassination of the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
FBI director Kash Patel announced the change Wednesday after intense conservative backlash towards the ADL’s classification of TPUSA in the wake of Kirk’s death.
“James Comey wrote ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them – a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans,” Patel said on social media.
“That era is OVER. This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.” …
… The ADL has faced intense backlash from online conservatives, including billionaire Elon Musk, for putting Turning Point USA in its extremism glossary.
The ADL’s page described Turning Point USA as a conservative group that has ties to “a range of right-wing extremists and has generated support from anti-Muslim bigots, alt-lite activists and some corners of the white supremacist alt-right.”
Its entry on Turning Point USA listed controversial statements linked to the activist group and accused Kirk of promoting “Christian nationalism.” Kirk was an outspoken Christian throughout his life and regularly discussed the importance of his faith to his mission.
In response to the online backlash, the ADL deleted its “Glossary of Extremism and Hate” and admitted some of its entries were outdated.
“With over 1,000 entries written over many years, the ADL Glossary of Extremism has served as a source of high-level information on a wide range of topics for years. At the same time, an increasing number of entries in the Glossary were outdated. We also saw a number of entries intentionally misrepresented and misused,” the ADL said in a statement.
