FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Anti-Defamation League claimed that right-wing extremists committed “all” the extremist-related murders in 2023, discounting the apparent extremism of Audrey Hale, the transgender shooter who killed three adults and three students in March at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.
Conservative commentator Steven Crowder released three pages of the shooter’s manifesto, which police confirmed were legitimate, in November.
Hale, a white female, reportedly identified as male and went by the name “Aiden.” Her manifesto expresses hatred for white people, whom she refers to as “crackers.”
“Kill those kids!!! Those crackers. Going to private fancy schools with those fancy khakis and sports backpacks with their daddies mustangs and convertibles. F— you little sh—s,” she wrote. “I wish to shoot your weak ass d—s with your mop yellow hair, wanna kill all you little crackers!!! Bunch of little faggots with your white privileges. F— you faggots.”
These remarks echo the Left’s ideological talking points on “white privilege” and reveal a disdain for others based on their skin color. This hatred of white people echoes the Marxist claim that America is institutionally racist, so justice demands stripping whites of their “privilege” and elevating racial minorities rather than securing a level playing field for all races.
Yet the ADL told The Daily Signal that Hale’s case does not show “clear evidence of extremism.”
“The case of Hale does not appear in the report, as we did not find clear evidence of extremism,” the spokesperson said. “Hale left some writings, not released by police, that they described as lacking any specific political or social issues. Three pages of a document were later leaked that contained hateful epithets directed at white and LGBTQ+ people, which did not provide evidence of any particular extremist ideology, but rather primarily resentment and grievance at students from the shooter’s former school perceived to be better off than the shooter was.”
“If additional information comes to light, this determination may change,” the spokesperson added.
The ADL appears to have considered Hale’s decision to condemn her targets as “faggots” to be an example of “epithets directed at … LGBTQ+ people,” thus muddying any potential left-wing extremism as a motivating factor.
The ADL also responded to potential criticism that excluding Hale from the report may undermine the organization’s credibility.
“Every year, the ADL Center on Extremism examines all murders that attract speculations or allegations of extremist connections,” the spokesperson said. “Some cases are confirmed as being extremist-connected and are included in our statistics. In many instances, though, investigation either reveals no extremist ties or uncovers insufficient evidence to determine an extremist connection. Such incidents are not included in the year’s extremist murder statistics.”
“If additional evidence is subsequently revealed for a specific murder that confirms an extremist tie, such a murder would be added to the statistics at that time,” the spokesperson added. “Our statistics are regularly updated to include new findings.”
The ADL noted that “although our statistics determined that all extremist-related murders in 2023 were perpetrated by far-right extremists, as ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt made clear upon the release of the report: ‘Last week’s sickening attempted mass shooting in Houston by a woman who had praised Islamist terrorist groups reminds us we cannot stand idly by as hateful extremists continue to threaten our security from across the ideological spectrum.’”
ADL’s examples of right-wing extremism include two murders apparently motivated by neo-Nazism and white supremacy. In May, 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, a Hispanic man who reportedly had white supremacist and neo-Nazi tattoos, killed eight people at a mall in Allen, Texas, before police killed him. In August, 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmeter shot and killed three people in a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, before he shot himself. His AR-15-style rifle bore a swastika and racial slurs written in white sharpie.
The ADL has repeatedly condemned what it characterizes as racism on the Right while turning a blind eye to the racial discrimination perpetrated by the Left in the name of “anti-racism.” In 2020, the ADL defined racism as “the marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.” In 2022, it released an “interim” definition stating that racism “occurs when individuals or institutions show more favorable evaluation or treatment of an individual or group based on race or ethnicity.”
The ADL has claimed that Fox News host Tucker Carlson endorsed a racist antisemitic conspiracy theory when he claimed that the Democratic Party is attempting to “replace the current electorate” with “third-world voters” by keeping the southern border open.
The ADL’s omission of Hale from the 2023 list of extremist murders may trace back to Hale’s transgender identity. The ADL has taken an aggressive stance supporting gender ideology by condemning those who oppose it.
The ADL’s Center on Extremism has flagged critics of gender ideology, attacking conservative figures like Chaya Raichik, the Jewish woman behind the influential Libs of TikTok X account.
The ADL has even alerted law enforcement to conservatives who have criticized transgender orthodoxy, such as Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Chris Rufo and conservative commentator Matt Walsh.
The ADL has faced harsh criticism for adopting many of the Left’s favored causes, often in the name of fighting antisemitism.
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