A college program funded by the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) equated conservatives and Christians to militant neo-Nazis.
DHS funded college program linking Fox News, NRA, RNC to neo-Nazis https://t.co/XOgX0TPDZi pic.twitter.com/lfGlun9045
— New York Post (@nypost) May 25, 2023
According to MRC Free Speech America, documents reveal that the DHS’ Office of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention provided over $350,000 in 2022 to a Dayton University program to “develop and implement modules on the risks of and protective factors for radicalization to violence related to media literacy and online critical thinking for students.”
The DHS awarded 80 grants equaling nearly $40 million under its Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program to create “media literacy and online critical thinking initiatives.” In a memorandum obtained by MRC, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called the grant program “high priority.”
The watchdog organization reported that the University of Dayton’s “PREVENTS-OH” was “among the most radical grantees.” The project pledged to fight “domestic violence extremism and hate movements.”
According to MRC, a chart used by DHS and its grantee in a training program equates conservative groups with militant neo-Nazis, including The Heritage Foundation, Fox News, the National Rifle Association (NRA), Breitbart News, PragerU, Turning Point USA, the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), among others.
The chart, labeled “The Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization,” grouped various Christian, conservative, and prominent neo-Nazi organizations into a pyramid. It placed “smaller” groups with an “increased level of extremist” near the top of the pyramid.
During Dayton University’s seminar, the presenter explained that the groups at the bottom of the pyramid are considered “mainstream conservatism,” including the GOP, Fox News, the Heritage Foundation, and the Christian Broadcasting Network.
The middle of the pyramid was labeled “alt-lite” and included Breitbart News, PragerU, Turning Point USA, Infowars, and “Make America Great Again.”
The last two top tiers, labeled “alt-right” and “accelerationist terrorism,” were comprised of known radical hate groups.
“The seminar also compared former President Donald Trump to Pol Pot and suggested Florida Governor Ron DeSantis might wish to start a second Holocaust,” the watchdog group stated.
“This seminar was not funded, organized, or hosted by the Department of Homeland Security,” a DHS spokesperson told the New York Post.
Yet, a DHS employee participated in the university’s seminar to discuss the department’s Center for Prevention Programs and Partnership. Dayton University researchers noted that their seminar was associated with the DHS grant program.
MRC’s vice president Dan Schneider accused DHS of “lying through its teeth once again.”
“DHS did indeed fund the PREVENTS-OH program a year after a graph and documents were presented that equated Nazis to conservatives, Christians, and Republicans,” Schneider stated.
“Laughably, the DHS Ohio grantee quickly scrubbed its website following this report, something innocent groups don’t do. But it is too late; we have already copied it. We also have proof that ‘PREVENTS-OH’ actually hosted the conference and that DHS was an active participant, including featuring a senior DHS official at the conference,” he continued.
