Producer Blake Neff started by outlining the SPLC’s vast financial resources. “For decades, the Southern Poverty Law Center has collected revenues well in excess of its spending,” Neff said. “In 2022, it collected $140 million, spent just $110 million for a surplus of $30 million. It has… amassed a pool of assets totaling more than $700 million.”
He noted that the group’s opulant headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama, is nicknamed the “Poverty Palace,” and even liberals have labeled the SPLC a “fraud” and a “con.”
Neff compared the SPLC’s situation in Alabama to how New York’s attorney general aggressively targeted the NRA. He pointed out that anti-gun advocates, backed by Michael Bloomberg, invested years into building media infrastructure like The Trace to support campaigns against the NRA.
Posobiec added "That’s New York — that’s a blue state,” he said. “But Alabama is the reddest of the red states. The AG is sitting right there overseeing [the SPLC].” He said that Republicans have failed to use their authority in solidly conservative states to investigate groups that, in his words, “are very clearly engaging in fraudulent behavior.”
The conversation kept coming back repeatedly to the idea that conservatives will shy away from using power, while progressives aggressively wield it. “We on the right need to learn how to exert and use the power that we have,” Kolvet said. “When you have… a very clear predicate that this organization is engaging in fraudulent behavior and fleecing donors, then go investigate that. Use the power that the people have given you. Take on the SPLC.”
Posobiec agreed, emphasizing the federal angle. If mail fraud or wire fraud were involved, he said, “that makes it federal,” opening additional avenues for prosecution.
Kolvet framed the SPLC’s work as more than just fundraising. “It’s built on blood money,” he said. “These are the organizations that have been spewing hate about Jack Posobiec, about Charlie Kirk, about Turning Point USA, and they’re giving license to murderers. What do they do with that money? They slander good people, good Christians, people that built this country.”
For Posobiec, the lesson is simple: Republicans cannot afford to treat institutions like the SPLC as untouchable. “Every single inch of this country has a crisis of leadership,” he said. “If you’re elected to represent the people, then use the authority they’ve given you. Don’t just win power — use it.”
