U.S. conservative activist: Hitler was 'fine' if he had stayed in Germany

Turning Point USA, of which Candace Owens is director, has history of leaders making antisemitic and racist remarks

FEBRUARY 10, 2019 07:00

Updated: FEBRUARY 11, 2019 13:20

Candace Owens speaking with attendees at the 2018 Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA, Florida. (photo credit: GAGE SKIDMORE/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS) — Candace Owens speaking with attendees at the 2018 Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA, Florida.

(photo credit: GAGE SKIDMORE/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

Candace Owens, a conservative commentator and political activist in the US, said Adolf Hitler would have been fine if he had kept his nationalism local rather than trying to project it globally. A video of her comments made at a conference in the UK in December sparked heavy backlash after it went viral on Friday.

"The definition [of nationalism] gets poisoned by elitists that actually want globalism," Owens said. "Globalism is what I don't want. Whenever we say nationalism, at least in America, we think about Hitler."

Here is video of Candace Owens' full answer on nationalism and Hitler pic.twitter.com/NfBvoH8vQg
— John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) February 8, 2019

"He was a national socialist," she continued. "But if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, okay fine. The problem is is that he had dreams outside of Germany... I don't really have a problem with nationalism."

Owens is communications director of the right-wing organization Turning Point USA, which has a long history of racism and antisemitism. The group's former national field director once sent a racist text message in which she wrote, "I hate black people."

The group is funded in part by the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, a pro-Israel group that promotes Jewish identity, as well as by Andrew Borans, CEO of the Jewish Alpha Epsilon Pi Foundation fraternity.