Moskowitz refuses – Rep. Jared Moskowitz sparred with Dr. Carol Swain during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center, pressing whether Neo-Nazis are supremacists—then told her there’s “no freakin’ way” he’ll buy her book after she suggested he read
By the time Rep. Jared Moskowitz finished pressing Dr. Carol Swain on one basic question—whether Neo-Nazis are “supremacists”—the exchange had turned into something louder than a policy debate.
It happened on Wednesday. during a House Judiciary Committee hearing focused on the Southern Poverty Law Center. a nonprofit that monitors and brings legal actions against hate groups. The hearing landed amid intense scrutiny for the SPLC after a federal grand jury indicted the organization in April. following revelations that the group improperly paid informants as part of a scheme to infiltrate white supremacist groups. For years, the SPLC has been a target for conservatives; the indictment has only sharpened that hostility.
Swain. a Republican witness and professor of political science at Vanderbilt University. framed her criticism of the organization in broad terms. She told the committee the SPLC has “drifted from its original mission of monitoring genuine hate groups — such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis — toward targeting mainstream conservatives.”.
Moskowitz didn’t stay there for long. Using his time, he went straight at Neo-Nazi ideology—asking whether they are “supremacists.”
“Are neo-Nazis supremacists?” Moskowitz asked.
Swain responded, “It depends on which ones. They’re individuals–”
Moskowitz cut her off. “I didn’t ask you which ones.” After crosstalk, he pressed again: “Ms. Swain, listen, I’m not reading your book if you literally can’t answer this question. Are Neo-Nazi supremacists?”
Swain again returned to a conditional framing, saying, “They’re individuals. Some are and some may be just plain old anti-Semites.”
Moskowitz pushed back hard on the distinction. “No, no, Neo-Nazis are anti-Semites, ok? We’re gonna agree there. But they’re also supremacists, Ms. Swain.”
Swain started to respond, but Moskowitz kept the pressure on, rejecting any attempt to narrow the label. “No, no, you don’t have to take my word for it. Right? Like, they are. That’s the whole reason they exist.”
When Swain continued, Moskowitz made his point even more direct: “–because they believe they are supreme.”
Swain then said, “But you all don’t say–” and referred to a “white supremacist—”
Moskowitz snapped back at the conversational structure of it, challenging who “you all” even included. “Who’s they all?! I’m not a Neo-Nazi. Who’s they all? I’m a regular person asking another regular person if we can agree that Neo-Nazis are supremacists.”
Swain replied, “I will agree with you.”
Then came the moment that turned into the line that stuck. After a brief exchange about not wanting her to be “forced into it,” Swain suggested a different route altogether. “I would agree with you. but I suggest you all take the time and read my Cambridge University Press book that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.”.
Moskowitz answered with clear irritation—and no interest in swapping the committee’s question for a reading assignment. “Dr. Swain, I can promise you there’s no freakin’ way I’m buying your book when when it took two minutes for you to look at me and not and– and how to convince you that Neo-Nazis–”
Swain responded, “Because I don’t like the talking points.”
Moskowitz didn’t end the push there. He went on to ask the other witnesses present whether Neo-Nazis are supremacists, and each responded in the affirmative.
As the clip continued, Moskowitz returned to the meaning of the question itself. “Dr. Swain, that wasn’t a trick question for them,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to trip them up.”
The hearing’s larger policy subject was the SPLC—its legal standing after an April federal indictment and the accusations from conservatives that its focus has shifted. But on Wednesday, what readers likely remember first wasn’t the nonprofit’s legal details. It was the impatience in Moskowitz’s voice as he insisted that when it comes to whether Neo-Nazis are supremacists. the answer couldn’t be deferred to a book—and it certainly couldn’t be sold to him in the middle of a hearing.
Jared Moskowitz Carol Swain Southern Poverty Law Center SPLC House Judiciary Committee Neo-Nazis white supremacist Vanderbilt University Cambridge University Press Pulitzer Prize nominated book federal indictment informants