During a congressional hearing on hate crimes and white nationalism Tuesday, California Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu used an out of context clip in an apparent attempt to portray conservative firebrand Candace Owens as an Adolf Hitler apologist. Lieu’s antics and Owens’ fiery response went viral. Since, Lieu has continued to defend his much-maligned move, prompting even more backlash, including from libertarian commentator Dave Rubin with whom Lieu engaged in a contentious back and forth online Wednesday.
During the House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, Lieu played a clip of Owens discussing nationalism and Hitler. “I’m going to let her own words talk,” said Lieu, then held up his phone to the mic and played the context-less clip.
“When we say ‘nationalism,’ the first thing people think about — at least in America — is Hitler. You know, he was a national socialist, but if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK then, fine. The problem is, he had dreams outside of Germany,” Owens said.
When she had a chance to respond, Owens unloaded on Lieu for trying to smear her with an “extracted clip”: “I think it’s pretty apparent that Mr. Lieu believes that black people are stupid and will not pursue the full clip in its entirety. He purposefully presented an extracted clip,” she said, adding after a back and forth with Democrat Jerry Nadler: “You didn’t hear the question that was asked of me. He’s trying to present that I was launching a defense of Hitler in Germany, when, in fact, the question that was asked of me was pertaining to whether or not I believed in nationalism and that nationalism was bad. And what I responded to was that I do not believe that we should be characterizing Hitler as a nationalist. He was a homicidal psychopathic maniac that killed his own people. A nationalist would not kill their own people. That is exactly what I was referring to in the clip, and he purposely wanted to give you a cut-up, similar to what they do to Donald Trump to create a different narrative. That was unbelievably dishonest, and he did not allow me to respond to it, which is worrisome and to tell you a lot about where people are today in terms of trying to drug-up narratives.”
In response to Lieu continuing to defend his playing of the clip, Rubin blasted the Democratic representative as an “embarrassment” to Congress.
“Wow, Ted Lieu is still going with this BS,” Rubin said in a tweet Wednesday noted by Twitchy. “He’s an embarrassment who couldn’t bother to counter anything @RealCandaceO said (didn’t even ask her a question), then got called out and is doubling down as they always do. Did any mainstream media pick this up btw? NY Times, CNN?”
Lieu responded by tripling down on his decision to play the clip:
That prompted Rubin to try to get Lieu on the record about the question at hand: “Man, you just can’t stop, huh?” he wrote. “Let’s try this. Yes or no, one word answer, do you believe Candace thinks what Hitler did to the Jews was OK? Yes or no. C’mon say it. I wish I could afford to live in your district I might run against you.”
“I don’t know what Candace Owens thinks,” Lieu responded. “But we do have the video of her own words. And here is how many people have interpreted her words,” he added, linking to a story by the Jewish Journal on the Anti-Defamation League criticizing Owens’ statement.
Rubin swiped back by saying he is “actually embarrassed” for the congressman, saying he was “clearly implying” she was defending Hitler’s horrific actions against the Jews but now “won’t even say it.” “Can you speak for yourself or just send me links?” asked Rubin.
Related: WATCH: Candace Owens Wrecks Dem Rep. Ted Lieu After He Plays ‘Hitler’ Comments On Cellphone