Candace Owens to Congress: ‘White Supremacy and White Nationalism Is Not a Problem’
Five months after far-right pundit Candace Owens told Congress that the rise in hate crimes is “fake” and the GOP’s Southern Strategy was “a myth,” Republicans once again invited her to testify before a subcommittee on combating white supremacy. This time around, the conservative provocateur straight-up dismissed the notion that white nationalism is a problem.
Early on in Friday’s hearing before the House Oversight Joint Subcommittee, Owens—who late last year said Adolf Hitler was “OK” before he tried to go global—downplayed the threat of white supremacy in the United States, calling it nothing more than a fringe issue. (Reminder: The El Paso mass shooting was less than two months ago.)
“If we’re going to have a hearing on white supremacy, we are assuming that the biggest victims of that are minority Americans,” Owens stated. “And presumably this hearing would be to stop that and preserve the lives of minority Americans. Which based on the hierarchy of what’s impacting minority Americans, if I had to make a list of 100 things, white nationalism would not make the list.”
Video: Candace Owens on the “Awakening Among Black Voters”
Owens, meanwhile, went on to tally off a number of culture war issues that she felt were much more urgent for African Americans, such as black-on-black crime, abortion, and the left’s so-called war against men and masculinity.
Later on in the hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)—who was a late arrival—ceded all of his time to Owens, who had largely been ignored by Democrats throughout the bulk of the proceedings. The former Turning Point USA communications director claimed she was being passed over because she was speaking truth to power that the issues of racism and white supremacy were overblown and being used for political purposes by Democrats.
“I also found it quite hilarious that when asked for actual numbers, nobody here could actually provide them because it’s not actually a problem in America or a major problem that’s facing Black America,” she declared.
“White supremacy and white nationalism is not a problem that is harming Black America,” Owens added before calling on the African American community to start “putting fathers back in the home” and demanding a return to “God, religion and shrinking government.”
The conservative commentator insisting that white nationalism isn’t a real problem in America echoes Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s infamous assertion last month that white supremacy is “a hoax,” a claim the right-wing star made just days after a suspected mass shooter deliberately targeted Mexicans.
Furthermore, in a Fox News appearance in June, Owens said that African Americans were better off under Jim Crow laws and before the passage of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act.
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