Turning Point USA spokesperson Candace Owens. Image by Gage Skidmore/Wikipedia Commons

By Ari Feldman April 8, 2019

Update, 3:38 p.m.: The newest version of this story adds context on the process by which witnesses are asked to testify.

Candace Owens, a conservative commentator and spokesperson for the right-wing campus group Turning Points USA, will testify before Congress about hate crimes and white nationalism, The Hill reported.

Owens will be one of several people testifying Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee, including Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, and Eileen Hershenov, the senior vice president for policy at the Anti-Defamation League.

“This hearing will examine hate crimes, the impact white nationalist groups have on American communities and the spread of white identity ideology. The hearing will also foster ideas about what social media companies can do to stem white nationalist propaganda and hate speech online,” the committee said in a statement.

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The minority Republican members of the committee asked Owens and Klein to speak, said Jessica Andrews, the communications director of the House Judiciary Committee for the Republicans.

Owens is a popular conservative speaker with a large social media following, and has gained attention in Republican circles for encouraging black people to leave the Democratic Party.

Owens has said that Hitler would have been “fine” if he stayed in Germany, and suggested that because Hitler wanted Germany to have control of the whole world, that made him a globalist, and not a nationalist. Owens later walked back her comments somewhat in an interview on Fox Business.

Owens was also mentioned in the manifesto of the man who killed 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand last month, in a reference that many observers concluded was insincere and meant to “troll” Owens.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

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