Ted Lieu plays a clip of Candace Owens' comments on Hitler to ridicule Republicans for inviting her to a hearing on white nationalism

• Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu on Tuesday played a video clip of incendiary remarks Candace Owens made on Adolf Hitler and nationalism back in December.
• At the time, Owens was staring directly at Lieu as she testified on white nationalism at the invitation of GOP lawmakers. 
• "Of all the people that Republicans could have selected, they picked Candace Owens. I don't know Ms. Owens, I'm not going to characterize her. I'm going to let her own words do the talking," Lieu said before playing the clip.

Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California on Tuesday played a video of controversial comments Candace Owens made on Adolf Hitler and nationalism as the rising conservative star testified on white nationalism at the invitation of GOP lawmakers. 

The hearing was held by the House Judiciary Committee, and Owens was among eight witnesses on the panel. 

During his remarks, Lieu noted that the minority party is allowed to choose its own witnesses for such hearings. 

"Of all the people that Republicans could have selected, they picked Candace Owens. I don't know Ms. Owens, I'm not going to characterize her. I'm going to let her own words do the talking," Lieu went on to say. 

Read more: Candace Owens says Trump will 'crack the black vote' because he loves America and 'the left hates' it

The California lawmaker then played the first 30 seconds of remarks Owens made on Hitler at a conference in London late last year. 

"I think that the definition gets poisoned by elitists that actually want globalism. Globalism is what I don't want," Owens said at the time. "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."

She added, "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. Everybody to look a different way. That's not, to me, that's not nationalism. In thinking about how we could go bad down the line, I don't really have an issue with nationalism. I really don't. I think that it's OK."

After playing the video clip of Owens' comments, Lieu asked another witness from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) -an organization that focuses on combatting anti-Semitism - whether it feeds into "white nationalist ideology" when people attempt to "legitimize" Hitler. 

Eileen Hershenov, the ADL's senior vice president for policy, replied, "It does, Mr. Lieu. I know that Ms. Owens distanced herself from those comments later but we expressed great concern over the original comments." 

Read more: Rising conservative star Candace Owens is slammed over her newly surfaced Hitler comments

Later in the hearing, Owens bashed Lieu for playing the clip. 

"I think it's pretty apparent that Mr. Lieu believes that black people are stupid and will not pursue the full clip...That was unbelievably dishonest … I'm deeply offended by the insinuation of revealing that clip without the question that was asked of me," Owens said. 

Owens is the communications director for the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA (TPUSA) and has been touted by President Donald Trump as "so good" for the country. TPUSA has a strong relationship with the White House and increasing influence within the Republican party. 

In May 2018, the president tweeted, "Candace Owens of Turning Point USA is having a big impact on politics in our Country. She represents an ever expanding group of very smart 'thinkers,' and it is wonderful to watch and hear the dialogue going on...so good for our Country!"

Owens' comments on Hitler were made in December but surfaced in February. At the time, TPUSA told INSIDER her remarks were "of course being misconstrued and taken out of context."

During Tuesday's hearing, Owens slammed Democrats and the overall purpose of the occasion.

"The hearing today is not about white nationalism or hate crimes, it's about fear-mongering, power and control," Owens said. "The goal here is to scare blacks, Hispanics, gays and Muslims, helping [Democrats] censor dissenting opinions … helping them regain control."

"White supremacy, racism, white nationalism, words that once held real meaning, have now become nothing more than election strategies," Owens added.

Multiple studies have shown that white nationalism and right-wing violence have been on the rise since Trump took office.