On Wednesday, Newsweek wrote that Donald Trump Jr. praised Candace Owens for her supposed defense of Adolf Hitler, prompting an avalanche of criticism that Newsweek was twisting the news to fit their preconceived leftist agenda. Newsweek promoted their article with this tweet:
In the article linked by the tweet, Newsweek wrote: “Donald Trump Jr. has praised right-wing activist Candace Owens for her appearance on Capitol Hill, during which she defended her comments about nationalism and Adolf Hitler.”
Newsweek noted that Owens, speaking before the House Judiciary Committee during a hearing on hate crimes and white nationalism, responded to a clip of comments she made in December that was played by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA). The clip showed Owens saying:
I actually don’t have any problems at all with the word nationalism. I think that the definition gets poisoned by leaders that actually want globalism. Globalism is what I don’t want. So when you think about whenever 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, 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.
Newsweek acknowledged that after the clip was played, Owens fired back at Lieu, saying, “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 purposely presented an extracted clip.” She added, “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 purposely presented an extracted clip.”
Owens continued, “He’s trying to present as if 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. What I responded … was 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.”
Newsweek then quoted Trump Jr. tweeting, “Wow. Well done @RealCandaceO!!! Great to see someone call out the Dems on their purposeful manipulation of facts for their narrative. Since the media runs with anything they say and is the marketing wing of the DNC, they aren’t used to getting called out for the repeated BS.”
Newsweek was called out for their characterization of Owens’ remarks and Trump Jr.s’ defense of her:
“Dilbert” creator Scott Adams was most succinct:
As was Ann Coulter:
Director and producer Robby Starbuck snapped, “No @RealCandaceO did not defend Hitler and @DonaldJTrumpJr certainly did not defend her defending Hitler you vile liars @Newsweek. Newsweek is the epitome of fake news and should be shamed by everyone with a pulse until they change their ways or close their doors for good.”
Writer Jeremy Frankel noted the irony of Newsweek slamming Owens while featuring a picture of anti-Semitic Rep. Ilhan Omar on their cover: