EXCLUSIVE: Moms for Liberty Slams ‘Extremist’ Label from SPLC

Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovich slammed the recent decision to label her group “extremist” and “antigovernment” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization noted for listing mainstream conservatives alongside hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

Speaking to Breitbart News on Wednesday, Descovich described the recent label placed on her nonprofit organization as “a coordinated attack against the parents’ rights movement.” 

However, she attributed the move to her organization “having so much success and so much progress over the last two years of reclaiming public education and putting parents back in the driver’s seat.”

Noting the dangers of being listed as such, especially given the past attack on the Family Research Council by convicted domestic terrorist Floyd Lee Corkins who identified the SPLC as his inspiration, Descovich questioned why the FBI and the Justice Department are not “concerned about an organization that is literally putting targets on the backs of everyday moms that are standing up for their children.” 

“They clearly got involved last year, targeting with a threat tag parents that were just showing up at school board meetings, yet they’re not going to take this seriously?” she stated, declaring the SPLC a “proven organization that puts targets on people that have had their lives at risk.”

Descovich suggested the SPLC is actually achieving the aims of the Joe Biden administration.

“We have proof that they’ve already used the National School Board Association to do their bidding, so, of course, they’re going to use another entity, the Southern Poverty Law Center, to also do their bidding,” she charged.

Addressing the listing’s description of her group as a “far-right” and “antigovernment” movement that targets and intimidates teachers and school officials, advances “conspiracy propaganda,” and spreads “hateful imagery and rhetoric against the LGBTQ community,” Descovich responded, “We completely reject that accusation.”

“Moms for Liberty’s mission is to save America by unifying, educating, and empowering parents to defend their parental rights,” she explained. “We do this because we have natural and inherent rights to direct the upbringing of our children.”

However, she noted the government “has been working for decades to get in between that relationship.” 

According to Descovich, the Florida-based organization is “pushing back against the government overstepping its bounds into families.” 

“And that’s where the lines are being drawn in the sand today,” she concluded. 

Earlier this week, the SPLC placed Moms for Liberty and 11 other parental rights groups on its “hate map” for being “antigovernment extremist groups.”

The inclusion of these 12 parental rights groups brings the SPLC’s total number of hate and antigovernment extremist groups to 1,225, according to the organization’s annual 2022 Year in Hate and Extremism report.

Of those, 523 were “hate groups,” and 702 were deemed “antigovernment extremist groups,” which the parental rights groups fell under.

“Schools, especially, have been on the receiving end of ramped-up and coordinated hard-right attacks, frequently through the guise of ‘parents’ rights’ groups,” the SPLC’s report claims.

“These groups were, in part, spurred by the right-wing backlash to COVID-19 public safety measures in schools,” the report continues. “But they have grown into an anti-student inclusion movement that targets any inclusive curriculum that contains discussions of race, discrimination and LGBTQ identities.”

In response to the label, many came to the defense of the parental rights group.

“If @Moms4Liberty is a ‘hate group,’ add me to the list,” stated Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

“Moms who care about their kids’ education are not a ‘hate group,’” wrote Christina Pushaw, press secretary for presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, as she claimed the Florida governor “stands with @Moms4Liberty and will never back down!”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) called the decision “absurd.” 

“Parents have every right to defend themselves and protect their children from liberal indoctrination in schools,” she asserted.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) declared the SPLC “a corrupt slush fund devoted to defamation.” 

“Groups like @Moms4Liberty and @DefendingEd should be proud of the work they do for families and kids,” he added.

Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) stated it is “[i]nsane to label moms who care about their kids’ well-being as ‘extremists.’”

“This is what the far left does to folks they disagree with, & it’s disgusting,” he wrote. “Proud to stand with @Moms4Liberty & their work to stop the indoctrination of our young leaders.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) also described the movie as “[a]bsurd,” as he slammed the SPLC for caring more about “silencing parents who want to have a say in their children’s education than they care about a violent domestic terrorist among their own ranks.”

Moms for Liberty is at the “forefront of this mobilization,” according to the far-left “anti-hate” watchdog that noted, “They can be spotted at school board meetings across the country wearing shirts and carrying signs that declare, ‘We do NOT CO-PARENT with the GOVERNMENT.’”

The grassroots parental-rights organization, founded in 2021 primarily in response to school administrations’ handling of the COVID pandemic, is “dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government,” according to its website.

Today, the group boasts over 100,000 members with local chapters in 40 states and is at the forefront of the fight against the LGBTQQIAAP2S+ agenda being pushed in elementary school classrooms.

The organization has gained massive attention, with former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slated to speak at its annual summit in Philadelphia later this month.

Previously, Descovich encouraged Breitbart News Daily listeners to start their own local chapters if there is not one readily available.