"The Southern Poverty Law Center long ago abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine," FBI Director Kash Patel told the Daily Signal in a Friday statement. "Their so-called hate map has been used to defame mainstream Americans and even inspired violence."

The SPLC created a so-called "hate map" which put conservatives and Christians together with Ku Klux Klan chapters. 

"That disgraceful record makes them unfit for any FBI partnership," Patel added. 

The move comes two days after Patel told Fox News that the FBI had severed ties with the Anti-Defamation League, another organization that's been used to censor, demonetize, and target those on the right.

Even the Washington Post questioned their tactics in 2018...

As the Daily Signal notes, the SPLC has inspired leftist violence...

In 2012, a domestic terrorist used the "hate map" to target the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian think tank in Washington, D.C. He planned to kill everyone in the building. A building manager largely foiled the attack, but suffered lifelong injuries in the process. The SPLC condemned the attack, but kept the council on the "hate map" ever since.

The man who opened fire at a Republican practice session for the Congressional Baseball Game in 2017, nearly killing then-House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, had "liked" the SPLC on Facebook. The SPLC condemned that attack, as well.

The SPLC added Turning Point USA to the "hate map" mere months before an assassin with a transgender boyfriend allegedly murdered Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

The SPLC condemned the attack, but has not removed Turning Point USA from the "hate map."