Mike Pence meets Candace Owens, black activist who called George Floyd 'horrible', to discuss 'way forward'
Vice President Mike Pence has taken an initiative to reach out to black Americans amid the countrywide protests against the brutal killing of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis cops. However, his roundtable on race relations on Thursday, June 4, included conservative black commentator-activist Candace Owens who recently spoke less charitably about Floyd, calling him a “horrible human being” and that “racially motivated police brutality is a myth”.
Owens, 31, came out with her stance in a social media video recorded on Wednesday, June 3, titled ‘Confession: I DO NOT support George Floyd and I refuse to see him as a martyr’. "There was so much pressure for me to go with the popular opinion about who George Floyd was. We are being sold a lot of lies at the detriment to the black community, at the detriment to the white community and at the detriment to America as a whole,” she said, adding: "So, I want to come out and say that I do not support George Floyd and the media's depiction of him as a martyr for black America." Candace though said that she hoped the deceased man’s family gets justice. Her video went viral in no time.
Pence tweeted about his meeting some black Americans at the White House, explaining that the group had talks on how the country can move forward as a nation in the wake of the death of Floyd and the protests and violence that has followed. Floyd died during a violent arrest on May 25 when he was handcuffed and held against the ground with a cop pressing his knee on his neck. The 46-year-old, who was accused of giving a fake note to a shopkeeper while buying cigarettes, pleaded for help but the cops did not let him go. Massive protests broke out in the US, which is struggling to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, soon after a video of Floyd’s agonizing death became viral. Ben Carson, the only black American in President Donald Trump’s administration, recently said in a TV interview that the government is considering ways to begin a “national dialogue” including the black community in the wake of the violence.
The VP posted a picture of his meeting with the black Americans on Twitter but did not tag Owens. He tagged some other black conservatives, like Heritage Foundation President Kay Cole James, Elroy Sailor, who has served on the Trump transition team, and Center for Urban Renewal and Education founder Star Parker. Owens was seen seated in the meeting.
Owens said earlier in her video that “Floyd was not an amazing person” and searched for the man’s past in which she found his criminal and autopsy records. “First and foremost George Floyd, at the time of his arrest, was high on fentanyl and methamphetamine,” she said, besides mentioning a 2007 robbery case in which Floyd was involved and held a gun against the abdomen of a pregnant woman. “And this was the biggest instant I had that made me realize this is a horrible human being, that I'm not going to pretend is a good person,” Owens said. She also said that her criticism of Floyd was not to defend the officer, Derek Chauvin, who treated him abjectly but she could not consider a “criminal” to be upheld “as a citizen, as a martyr, or black America.”
After attending the talks with Pence and other black leaders, Owens said in a tweet: “Black lives only matter to white liberals, every 4 years, ahead of an election. I’m so sorry to those of you that thought otherwise.”
Owens, who is the communications director for Turning Point USA, a pro-Donald Trump youth group, has become a much-discussed public figure for her controversial takes.