Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Candace Owens of conservative student group Turning Point USA got into a nasty spat during a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, with Lieu suggesting she was sympathetic to Hitler and she saying he must think blacks are stupid.
Adding to the circus atmosphere during the hearing on hate crimes and white nationalism Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., reprimanded Owens for calling Lieu ‘stupid,’ which she hadn’t done.
The heated exchange began when Lieu criticized Republicans for choosing Owens as a witness for the hearing.
“In congressional hearings, the minority party gets to select its own witnesses,” Lieu said. “And of all the people the Republicans could have selected, they pick Candace Owens. I don’t know Ms. Owens, I’m not going to characterize her. I’m going to let her own words do the talking. I’m going to play for you the first 30 seconds of a statement she made about Adolf Hitler.”
Lieu then held up a cell phone to his microphone and played a clip of Owens from December event in London that went viral in February.
Here’s the video of Rep. Ted Lieu playing Candace Owens’ remarks on Hitler to her at a hearing on hate crimes and the rise of white nationalism.
Via CSPAN pic.twitter.com/SEXgVuvzkw— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 9, 2019
“I actually don’t have any problems at all with the word nationalism,” Owens said in the clip. “Whenever we say ‘nationalism,’ the first thing people think about, at least in America, is Hitler. You know, he was a national socialist, but if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK, fine. Problem is he had dreams outside of Germany, he wanted to globalize, he wanted everybody to be German, everybody to be speaking German. Everybody to look a different way. That’s not, to me, that’s not nationalism.”
Lieu then addressed Eileen Hershenov, one of the other witnesses before the panel: “When people try to legitimize Adolf Hitler, does that feed into white nationalist ideology?”
“It does, Mr. Lieu,” the Hershenov replied
Lieu did not give Owens a chance to respond, but Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., the next representative to speak, allowed Owens to do so before Nadler cut her off.
[Also read: Hillary Clinton: White nationalists ‘certainly think’ ‘MAGA’ slogan is white nationalist slogan]
.@tedlieu played a clip of @RealCandaceO‘s controversial comments about Hitler during a congressional hearing on white nationalism.
“It’s pretty apparent that Mr. Lieu believes that black people are stupid and will not pursue the full clip ..” @RepJerryNadler cut her off. pic.twitter.com/zQp54uipWi
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 9, 2019
“It’s pretty apparent that Mr. Lieu believes that black people are stupid and will not pursue the full clip in its entirety,” Owens said. “He purposefully presented an extracted clip.”
Nadler banged his gavel and ordered Owens to suspend her comments.
“The witness may not refer to a member of the committee as stupid,” Nadler said.
“I didn’t refer to him as stupid, that’s not what I said,” Owens replied before continuing with her defense of her comments in the clip that Lieu played.
“He’s trying to present as if I was launching a defense of Hitler in Germany, when in fact, the question that was asked of me was pertaining to whether or not I believed that Hitler — whether or not I believed in nationalism, and that nationalism was bad,” she said. “And what I responded to is that I do not believe that we should be characterizing Hitler as a nationalist. He was a homicidal, psychopathic maniac that killed his own people. A nationalist would not kill their own people.”
Owens called Lieu’s presentation of the clip “unbelievably dishonest” and criticized him for not allowing her to respond.
Other witnesses at the hearing included representatives from Facebook, Google, the Equal Justice Society, the Zionist Organization of America and the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
