Biden administration tied to chart linking conservative organizations to domestic terror groups, says media watchdog

The Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has participated in a seminar that used a chart of domestic terror groups that includes virtually every conservative organization.

Called “The Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization,” the chart was used during an event to train volunteer organizations how to infiltrate and subvert conservative groups, according to the Media Research Center (MRC).

“They held a conference even before grant funding was provided, where they specifically used this chart and additional charts to train people on how to subvert organizations like The Heritage Foundation,” Dan Schneider, vice president of the MRC’s Free Speech America, told the Daily Signal. “And this sounds like such a conspiracy theory. It sounds crazy that this is happening, but it really is.”

MRC says that the University of Dayton was awarded a grant by DHS after the event, and the university is now using the money to target The Heritage Foundation, Fox News, Christian Broadcasting Network, Turning Point USA, PragerU, the National Rifle Association (NRA), Breitbart News, the American Conservative Union Foundation and the Republican National Committee.

MRC claims that the university of Dayton hosted the seminar, which  included a DHS regional representative and a member of the radical leftist group Antifa, Michael Loadenthal, who denied credit for creating the pyramid chart, but nonetheless used it during the event.

Loadenthal is a research fellow at the University of Cincinnati, and says that censorship efforts are not enough.

“To deny people that, to shut down their websites, to close their meetings, [and] to physically prevent them from assembling in public. This is the belief,” he claimed, according to Fox News.

The grant money is provided under a program started by President Trump and run by the DHS’s Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, said MRC.

“The Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program provides financial assistance to eligible applicants to develop sustainable, multidisciplinary targeted violence and terrorism prevention capabilities in local communities, to pilot innovative prevention approaches, and to identify prevention best practices that can be replicated in communities across the country,” said the program’s website.

But under the DHS grants, MRC said that the program is really intended to mobilize progressives to help silence conservative critics, even after Biden pledged to disband the program while he was campaigning for president.

“[DHS Secretary] Mayorkas and Biden appear to have hijacked it for their own political agenda, awarding 80 grants to far-left projects for the purposes of establishing ‘media literacy and online critical thinking initiatives’ among other so-called training seminars to upend conservatives, Christians and the Republican Party,” said the MRC report.

So far DHS has awarded nearly $40 million worth of grants to various organizations to help turn the TVTP program into a vehicle to suppress dissident voices on the right.

In a statement to Fox News, DHS denied any involvement with the seminar hosted at the University of Dayton, even though they sent a representative to participate.

“This seminar was not funded, organized, or hosted by the Department of Homeland Security,” the spokesperson said. “Similarly, the presented chart was not developed, presented, or endorsed by the Department of Homeland Security, and was not part of any successful grant application to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS does not profile, target, or discriminate against any individual for exercising their constitutional rights protected by the First Amendment.”

Similarly, the University of Dayton is disclaiming any responsibility for the seminar, because, at the time, it was not an actual grantee of money awarded by the DHS under the TVTP program, it told Fox.