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Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri expressed astonishment at a recent nomination hearing for the Eleventh Circuit Court. The nominee is Nancy Abudu, who was nominated by none other than Joe Biden.

The reasons for his astonishment are vast. You see, Abudu is the strategic litigation director at the Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC. She joined SPLC in 2019, the same year that organization paid $3.4 million to resolve a defamation lawsuit. During the hearing Senator Hawley also pointed out: “2019 was the year Charity Watch gave your organization an ‘F’ rating. The SPLC has been labeled by the left-wing policy journal Current Affairs as an outright fraud that uses willful deception designed to scare liberals into writing checks.” (emphasis added)

But Hawley had more to say during the hearing. “The progressive journalist Alexander Cockburn said this about SPLC: ‘I regard it, the southern poverty law center, collectively as one of the greatest frauds in American life.’ Liberal death penalty abolitionist Stephen Bright refused to accept an award named after the founder of the SPLC, saying in his words ‘the SPLC has long been run by a conman and a fraud.’ Also in 2019, SPLC employees told the press, ‘We were part of a con and we knew it.’” (emphasis added)

Tellingly, Abudu denied none of what Hawley said. Here is their discourse:

Abudu literally acknowledged none of what Senator Hawley said! Here is how she instead responded: “…my work with the Southern Poverty Law Center has been to uphold the constitutional rights of individuals who without pro bono counsel would not be even able to have access to justice.” That was it.

Silence can be an admission of guilt and that sure does seem to be what happened here. Senator Hawley was understandably appalled and said this: “Absolutely extraordinary. I can’t believe you’ve been nominated for this position. I can’t believe that the President of the United States would nominate someone from this organization with this record, and I can’t believe that you would sit here today and refuse to condemn this hateful, frankly, violent rhetoric.”

Do you think Joe Biden knows anything about the SPLC? Do you think Abudu’s nomination will be confirmed? Please let us know in the comments.