SPLC president claims conservative groups are 'more dangerous' than KKK

Richard Cohen, the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), has reiterated his criticism of conservative groups by claiming that organizations like the Family Research Council (FRC) are "more dangerous" than the Ku Klux Klan.

In an article published on the SPLC website last week, Cohen criticized President Donald Trump for "shamefully lending the legitimacy" of his office to the FRC by attending the conservative group's annual Values Voters Summit in Washington D.C. earlier this month.

Cohen said that he was not surprised that SPLC was called out at the event, noting that the liberal group has been a "thorn in the FRC's side for years."

"We've always believed it's important to take on groups like the FRC that have a foothold in the mainstream. In many ways, they're more dangerous to our country than hatemongers who wear robes and hoods," the SPLC president wrote.

The SPLC has labeled the FRC as a hate group since 2010, claiming that the conservative organization has "knowingly spread false and denigrating propaganda about LGBT people."

In his article, Cohen expressed concern that FRC "will be more powerful than ever and the LGBT community will be at even greater risk" because the group now has "unprecedented access" to the White House.

Founded in 1971, the SPLC has drawn criticism for including numerous conservative Christian groups and public figures on its list of hate groups.

The FRC's appearance on the list drew headlines in 2012, when a gunman identified as Floyd Lee Corkins attempted to commit a mass shooting at the conservative group's office in Washington D.C. FRC's building manager, Leo Johnson, thwarted the attack and was shot in the process. Corkins later told authorities that he targeted the conservative group because it was on the SPLC's hate map.

The liberal group has since denounced Corkins' actions, but it has refused to remove the FRC from its list of hate groups.

In September, a coalition of conservative groups, including the FRC, released an open letter to the media, calling on journalists to stop using SPLC as an information source.

"The SPLC is a discredited, left-wing, political activist organization that seeks to silence its political opponents with a 'hate group' label of its own invention and application that is not only false and defamatory but that also endangers the lives of those targeted with it," the groups stated in the letter.

Earlier this month, Newsweek drew criticism for calling the FRC a "hate group" in a story highlighting Trump's keynote speech at the Values Voters Summit. The publication noted in the article that the FRC has been described by the SPLC as a "rogues' gallery of the radical right."