Sen. Ted Cruz: Appeals court nominee's link to corrupt and terror-inspiring SPLC should be disqualifying

Nancy Abudu is a leftist lawyer who has supervised and strategized litigation at the Southern Poverty Law Center since 2019. She was nominated by President Joe Biden for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and is poised to soon be confirmed.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) blasted the Southern Poverty Law Center and Abudu in a scathing opinion piece this week, suggesting that the corruption and terror-links of the former have sufficiently compromised the latter, thereby disqualifying her from a role on the court.

Abudu did not win U.S. Senate approval in the prior Congress, which saw the Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked. However, now with a Democratic majority and Abudu renominated, Reuters reported she stands a chance of success. She was reported to the full Senate after an 11-10 committee vote on Feb. 9.

Cruz, who serves on the committee, reckons her advancement would be ill-advised.

In his Wednesday piece for RealClearPolitics, Cruz paired two SPLC lawyers presently in the news: "Thomas Webb Jurgens, a suspected Antifa terrorist arrested and charged for his involvement in a violent riot against the police in Atlanta, Ga., and Nancy Abudu, the SPLC’s director for strategic litigation, whose job involves overseeing all of the SPLC’s legal work – including its special litigation related to 'hate groups.'"

TheBlaze previously reported that Jurgens, 28, was rounded up last month with other violent extremists caught throwing Molotov cocktails, fireworks, rocks, and bricks at a police training facility in Atlanta.

In making a case against Abudu's confirmation, Cruz first made a case against the organization of which she is a major member.

Cruz noted that most organizations would "at a minimum" have suspended an employee accused of domestic terrorism, as in the case of Jurgens. Not so with the SPLC, said Cruz, which "not only has the SPLC allowed him to retain his position, it has failed to condemn the horrific violence."

Following Jurgens' arrest, the SPLC — for which Abudu serves as strategic litigation director — suggested that the arrests of Molotov-throwing trespassers and other extremists "are part of ongoing state repression and violence against racial and environmental justice protesters, who are fighting to defend their communities from the harms of militarized policing and environmental degradation. Each of these instances, including the many protesters charged with domestic terrorism, make clear that law enforcement views movement activists as enemies of the state."

Cruz wrote, "[S]uch egregious and violence-inducing actions are par for the course when it comes to the SPLC, which has a long track record of smearing its political opponents and putting them in harm’s way."

The senator noted that at least twice, the SPLC had inspired political violence.

A terrorist named Floyd Lee Corkins attempted to massacre conservatives at the headquarters of the Family Research Council in 2012. Corkins acknowledged that the shooting was inspired by the SPLC, which had previously labeled the conservative organization a hate group.

Confessed Terrorist Floyd Corkins Admits to Using SPLC Target Listyoutu.be

Cruz also referenced the 2017 assassination attempt on then-U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and other Republican lawmakers by James T. Hodgkinson. Six were shot, two critically. According to the Washington Examiner, the shooter was a fan of the SPLC, which had long claimed Scalise must go.

Despite having already possibly directed violence against conservatives in 2012 and Republicans in 2017, Cruz noted that Abudu's SPLC curated "a list of Republican candidates who SPLC said held 'open white supremacist, nativist, anti-LGBT or antigovernment' views. This list included myself, as well as my colleagues Josh Hawley and Marsha Blackburn."

Cruz underscored that while the SPLC is particularly antipathetic to Republicans, its haphazard aim has caught others in the crosshairs, including human rights advocate Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Muslim reformer Maajid Nawaz.

Nawaz told the Atlantic, "They put a target on my head. The kind of work that I do, if you tell the wrong kind of Muslims that I’m an extremist, then that means I’m an target. ... These people are putting me on what I believe is a hit list."

Fox News Digital reported that the SPLC ultimately had to pay out $3.37 million in a defamation suit and issue an apology to Nawaz.

Extra to creating potential hit lists for mentally unstable leftists and Islamists, Cruz noted that the SPLC is rife with internal corruption, referencing past accusations of racism, sexism, and sexual harassment within the organization.

While Abudu is not the SPLC and the SPLC's organizational faults cannot be singularly attributed to Abudu, Cruz noted the judicial nominee is not willing to distance herself from the SPLC's corruption and incendiary rhetoric.

"Shockingly, when questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee on which I serve, Abudu repeatedly refused to condemn the SPLC’s violence-inspiring rhetoric," wrote Cruz. "Instead, she repeatedly said how proud she is to work for an organization that has been discredited by investigative journalists and commentators from across the political spectrum for years and what even progressives have dubbed 'everything that’s wrong with liberalism.'"

Abudu can be seen dodging Cruz's questions last April here:

'So You're Going To Refuse To Answer That?': Ted Cruz Presses Biden Nom On SPLC Workyoutu.be

Abudu told the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2022 that "as the Director for Strategic Litigation, I have taken on significant managerial responsibilities, including overseeing all of the organization's legal programmatic work which, in addition to voting rights, includes immigrants' rights, criminal justice reform, children's rights, LGBTQ rights, and special litigation related to hate groups."

Accordingly, Abudu help the SPLC fight its cultural war in addition to helping it fight its legal battles.

Cruz implored his colleagues to consider "the message it would send to the people we represent should we confirm someone from such a corrupt organization to the federal bench," especially in light of "its entanglement with racism and sexual harassment, and its campaign of hate and domestic terrorism."

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