No changes to Owens event
Boulder County Republicans are not making changes to a planned event featuring conservative provocateur Candace Owens, whose comments regarding nationalism and referencing Adolf Hitler resurfaced Friday and prompted controversy.
Owens is the communications director of Turning Point USA, a conservative organization with chapters at high schools and colleges across the country, including at CU. She’s also the founder of Blexit, an organization that encourages black people to leave the Democratic Party.
And she’s scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the Boulder County Republicans’ annual Lincoln Dinner on Saturday night. A Facebook page advertising the event said its location will be disclosed upon RSVP.
Owens became the subject of national controversy for a response she gave while speaking in London in December about her feelings on nationalism, which BuzzFeed News reported Friday.
In response to a question, Owens said she did not have any problems with the word nationalism, and that its definition was poisoned by elitists who want globalism, according to a video of the response.
“Whenever we say nationalism, the first thing people think about, at least in America, is HitIf ler,” she said.
“He was a national socialist. If Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK, fine.
“The problem is that he wanted, 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. 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.”
Her comments received criticism and condemnation, including by Colorado’s Democratic leaders. However, Boulder County Republicans said her comments were misinterpreted.
“Yes, I’ve heard about the uproar about Ms. Owens’ comments,” Boulder County Republicans vice chairman Charlie Danaher said in an email, which was also signed by chairman Peg Cage. “But I’m not sure what to make of it. Nothing that she said in any way offered any support of Hitler’s actions. And, from my reading of her comments, any interpretation that her comments were sympathetic of Hitler are off base.”
He pointed to other comments Owens has made, including a Periscope video she posted Friday in which she condemned Hitler and said her comments had been taken out of context.