A rising conservative activist and Trump supporter is facing criticism after a video of her defending nationalism and differentiating it from Adolf Hitler’s policies went viral.
Candace Owens is the communications director of Turning Point USA, a conservative advocacy group. She made the comments at a December event in the U.K. to promote the launch of Turning Point UK, a British offshoot of the group.
Buzzfeed reported on the video Friday.
In the video, Owens was asked about nationalism in Western politics.
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“I actually don’t have any problems at all with the word ‘nationalism,'” Owens said. “I think that the definition gets poisoned by elitists that actually want globalism.
“Whenever we say nationalism, the first thing people think about, at least in America, is Hitler,” Owens said.
“He was a national socialist. But if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK, fine.”
“The problem is that … he wanted to globalize. He wanted everybody to be German, everybody to be speaking German … To me, that’s not nationalism. In thinking about how we could go bad down the line, I don’t really have an issue with nationalism. I really don’t.”
The comment garnered high-profile responses, including from Chelsea Clinton.
Clinton pointed out Hitler’s policies before invading other countries included “more than 400 regulations that stripped German Jews of their ability to work, go to school, vote, own property, seek care in public hospitals and enter ‘Aryan’ zones.”
Jewish historian David Perry said: “The problem with Hitler wasn’t that he wanted to conquer other places, but that he wanted to kill Jews, disabled folks, Roma, Communists, and others.”
Owens has since responded to the criticism in a video, saying that Hitler “wasn’t a nationalist, he was a homicidal, psychotic, maniac who was bent on world domination outside the confines of Germany.”
Owens first gained notoriety for her YouTube channel, “RedPillBlack” and a video that went viral titled “How to Escape the Democrat Plantation (an easy guide).”
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She has since founded Blexit, a movement that encourages black Americans to not support the Democratic Party.
Kanye West helped Blexit create a new logo and has voiced his support for Owens in the past, but has since said he wants no association with Blexit.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has proudly called himself a nationalist, has voiced his support for Owens, saying she is a part of a group of “very smart ‘thinkers.'”
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