Turning Point USA Students Call on Candace Owens to Step Down

Three chapters of campus conservative group Turning Point USA on Thursday denounced prominent pro-Trump activist Candace Owens, calling on her to step down from her high-ranking communications position in the group.

In a statement endorsed by TPUSA chapters at University of Nebraska Omaha, Bowling Green State University, and University of Colorado Boulder, college activists said the group’s leadership has thus far ignored their concerns about Owens.

“It seems that controversy has always surrounded Candace Owens,” the statement reads.

The statement comes hours before Owens and other young conservative activists are set to go on a White House visit that Owens helped arrange. Owens and TPUSA did not respond to requests for comment.

The chapters said in their statement that Owens’ frequent controversies have alienated the group’s allies on the right.

“We have seen many hard working activists and chapters across the United States dissociate with Turning Point USA simply because they can’t align themselves with the rhetoric and statements that have come out,” the statement read.

The chapters’ statement focuses on Owens’ strange comments about Adolf Hitler made in a speech last year.

“When we say nationalism, the first thing people think about, at least in America, is Hitler. He was a national socialist,” she said at Turning Point’s Europe launch event in London. “If Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK, fine.”

She continued in the controversial video: “The problem is 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.”

Owens said after the video surfaced that she was merely trying to point out that Hitler was—by her definition—not a nationalist, but a “globalist.”

In their statement, the TPUSA chapters said while they don’t believe Owens meant to praise Hitler, they found her comments indicative of her clumsy communication skills.

“As the Communications Director, she must know how to communicate professionally and effectively,” the statement read.

The chapters also slammed Owens for her attacks on the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and miscoundt. Last year, Owens tweeted that the movement was premised on the idea that women are “too weak to turn around and tell someone not to touch your ass again.”

“Turning Point USA is above this thoughtless and divisive rhetoric, and as Chapters, Presidents, and Leaders of Turning Point USA, we will no longer stand idly by as they continue,” the statement said.

This was not the first time Turning Point chapters have denounced Owens. In August, a Turning Point chapter accused Owens of trying to exploit the murder of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts.

Owens originally rose to fame on the right as part of the Gamergate movement, and she has attracted both publicity and controversy for Turning Point USA. Rapper and mogul Kanye West brought the group new attention after he praised Owens on Twitter, but eventually distanced himself from her after she pushed their connection too hard. She has also publicly feuded with other conservative pundits, including Tomi Lahren, star of Fox News’ digital streaming venture Fox Nation.