A far-left organization’s claim that parents’ rights groups are “extremist” is a badge of honor for them from a “joke” entity, says Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.

The leftist Southern Poverty Law Center released its annual 2022 Year in Hate and Extremism report this week, labeling Moms for Liberty, Parents Defending Education and 10 other parents’ rights groups as “extremist” – akin to the many conservative and Christian associations it claims are “hate groups.”

“So typical from them,” Hawley told The Heartlander of SPLC’s sweeping claim. “This group is, itself, a hate group. They’re a joke. I don’t know why anybody gives them any time of day. This is a group that has been investigated for embezzlement, that has committed all kinds of crimes, probably – certainly ripping off their donors is at the top of the list. 

“I mean, this is a ridiculous group. And all they do is go around and label Christian groups and conservative groups as hatemongers, when they’re the biggest purveyors of hate out there.”

Moms for Liberty reminded in a tweet that the Biden administration once worked with the National School Boards Association to paint concerned parents as domestic terrorists.

“Today, the SPLC labels our organization – an org full of moms who care about their kids – a Hate Group,” the group tweeted. “This is a coordinated attempt to silence and suppress us. We see it and we are not going to back down, but we need your help. Go to: http://MomsforLiberty.org. Chip-in to show support for our moms and help us continue the fight.”

One has to wonder how many “extremists” the SPLC thinks there are in the U.S.: Moms for Liberty, just one of the 12 parents’ rights groups it considers extreme, has over 68,000 followers on Twitter alone.

“They are phenomenal women,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said on his podcast. “They are moms who are standing up for their kids.”

The mushrooming moms organization has grown in its electoral power as well, Cruz says.

“Without Moms for Liberty, Gov. Glenn Youngkin would be Glenn Youngkin. There’d be no ‘governor.’ We’d have Gov. Terry McAuliffe, because Virginia – which Biden won by nearly 10 points – flipped red.”

That happened, Cruz said, “because moms stood up and they were ticked off at the left-wing takeover of their schools, they were ticked off at the woke ideology. … And what has the Southern Poverty Law Center said? Moms, they’re defending their kids, are a hate group.

“I’m gonna say right now: the SPLC is a radical left-wing hate group,” Cruz continued. “I’m going to use that term. They hate you. They hate me. They hate America. They hate conservatives. They hate the Constitution. They hate the Bill of Rights. They hate families. They hate moms. They hate dads. They hate anyone who stands up for this country. And I gotta say, for the SPLC to go after Moms for Liberty is disgusting.”

All the parents’ groups should see the SPLC’s bizarre designation as a positive, Hawley says, a sign that they’re over the target.

“I would just say to the parents’ groups, you ought to take that as a badge of honor. If the ‘Southern Poverty Whatever Whatever’ thinks that you guys are hate groups, it probably means you’re doing a good job of standing up for kids.”

Indeed, “We consider it to be a badge of courage,” Parents’ Rights in Education National Executive Director Suzanne Gallagher told Fox News. “That just means we’re doing our job. I almost feel like saying thank you to SPLC.”

Ryan Walters thinks so, too. The Oklahoma state superintendent issued a statement Wednesday in which he “wholeheartedly condemns the Southern Poverty Law Center’s reckless and boneheaded comments toward mothers in Oklahoma.

“This is yet another example of left-wing extremism and their insidious methods of labeling moms engaged in their kids’ education as public enemy number one. I will never stop fighting for the good people of Oklahoma, especially a patriotic organization like Moms for Liberty.”

Gallagher noted to Fox, however, that the SPLC’s listing of hers and other parents’ rights groups as extremist could provoke violence against them.

It’s not an idle fear: As The Heartlander has reported, in 2012, Floyd Lee Corkins II entered the conservative Family Research Council (FRC) in Washington, D.C., with plans for what became an averted mass shooting – and later told the FBI he was inspired to do so by the FRC’s status as a “hate group” on the SPLC website.

Corkins planned to kill multiple people and then smear Chick-fil-A sandwiches on them, owing to the restaurant chain’s published views on traditional marriage. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012 on three criminal counts, including terrorism.

As did the Moms for Liberty tweet, Hawley ties the current climate to the Biden administration’s oft-repeated animus toward conservatives:

“This lie, that the whole Biden world has tried to push – that if you’re a parent and you want to have a say in your kid’s education, that you’re a domestic terrorist – that is insane. It is insane. And we should never forget what they’ve tried to do.”