Candace Owens Says Congressional Hearing on White Nationalism Should Focus on Antifa Instead
Weeks after a white supremacist killed dozens of Muslim worshipers after opening fire on two New Zealand mosques, Turning Point USA communications director and right-wing grifter Candace Owens told the House Judiciary Committee that their hearing on the rise of white nationalism should actually be focused on anti-fascist groups because they once tossed water and eggs at her.
Last month, following the horrific Christchurch massacre, the judiciary committee announced it would be holding a hearing on white nationalism and the prevalence of hate speech that surrounds the movement. According to FBI data, there are currently about 900 open investigations of domestic terrorism. As The Daily Beast reported, domestic terrorism “is an umbrella category that includes far more than just far-right terrorism but functions as the most granular data available to indicate how federal law enforcement targets white supremacist violence.”
Owens, a rising black conservative media star who months ago said Hitler would have been “OK” if he had just kept his activities in Germany, used her appearance to push the canard that liberals are the real racists, white nationalism is just a myth, and Democrats are just using fear of white supremacy as an election strategy because they can’t use Russian collusion anymore.
At one point during her remarks before the committee, Owens reference an incident last summer in which anti-fascist protesters confronted her and TPUSA leader Charlie Kirk at an outdoor cafe in Philadelphia. The confrontation became a cause celebre on the right as Kirk had water dumped on him. Owens, meanwhile, tweeted out videos from the encounter of her saying how it was “bizarre” that the mostly white protesters would paint her and black police officers as racist.
After claiming that the rise of white nationalist-related crimes is due solely to manipulation of data by Democrats to scare blacks and Hispanics and keep them from leaving the party, Owens then said that “if they were actually concerned about white nationalism they would be holding hearings on Antifa.”
“A far-left violent white gang that determined, one day in Philadelphia last August, that I, a black woman, was not fit to sit in a restaurant,” she continued. “They chased me out. They yelled ‘race traitor’ to a group of black and Hispanic police officers who formed a line to protect me from their ongoing assaults. They threw water at me. They threw eggs at me! And the leftist media remained silent on it.”
Again, it should be pointed out that Owens and Kirk got a LOT of coverage over that incident last year, including from the so-called “leftist media.”
It didn’t take long for folks on Twitter to roll their eyes and shake their heads at Owens using the hearing to push the well-worn talking points that have made her a favorite of Fox News opinion hosts and far-right websites.
Owens says that there should really be a hearing on antifa, not white nationalism, citing that some antifa folks threw water and eggs at her in Philadelphia.
— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) April 9, 2019
Far-right maniac Candace Owens is currently testifying before congress about white nationalism. This is just two months after she explained that Hitler was an "okay guy" and Nazis doing a bit of genocide within their borders was actually fine by her. pic.twitter.com/CCop7i4r9A
— Nathan Bernard (@nathanTbernard) April 9, 2019
As Candace Owens testifies in front of Congress, I'll repost this thread in which I showed her "Blexit" site was filled with distortions and fake quotes. (Her response to this, by the way, was to block me immediately.) https://t.co/edyqhtPrUp
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) April 9, 2019
Kristen Clarke listening to Candace Owens in this hate crimes hearing is ALL of us. pic.twitter.com/A96Andz2xh
— Charlotte Clymer🏳️🌈 (@cmclymer) April 9, 2019
Hard to express how wildly disingenuous Candace Owens' testimony is. It is a Stephen Miller Special.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) April 9, 2019
Now Candace Owens said the House hearing on white nationalism should actually be focused on antifa. a;lsdkfjsdlkfjlsdkfjsdklf
— Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) April 9, 2019
Watch full hearing above, via House Judiciary Committee (Owens begins speaking roughly an hour into the livestream).
