Brandon Tatum Defends Candace Owens Against Conservative Critics Who Never Met Her
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Brandon Tatum Defends Candace Owens Against Conservative Critics Who Never Met Her
Brandon Tatum addresses fellow conservatives criticizing Candace Owens and Turning Point USA without ever meeting her personally. Drawing from his own initial skepticism about the Social Autopsy controversy, Tatum explains how meeting Owens face-to-face, including with her family members, convinced him of her authenticity. He argues that people can change their political views without being frauds, pointing to his own journey from defending Obama to becoming conservative. Tatum challenges critics who make hypothetical judgments about someone's character based on past statements rather than evaluating the truth of what they're saying now.
Brandon Tatum felt compelled to address the conservative commentators making videos about Candace Owens and Turning Point USA. He expresses disappointment in what he's heard people say about Owens, noting that he won't name specific individuals because the issue extends beyond any single critic. What troubles him most is that many of these critics have never actually met Candace Owens in person.
First Impressions and Initial Skepticism
Tatum shares his personal backstory of how he first connected with Owens. After making a viral video following his departure from the police department, Owens reached out to him on Twitter. While initially excited about the contact, Tatum became apprehensive when he learned about the Social Autopsy controversy. Coming straight from law enforcement without any political baggage, he was cautious about aligning himself with someone who might not be legitimate.
Before making any decisions, Tatum decided to meet Owens face-to-face. What struck him most about that first meeting was that he didn't just meet Candace alone—he met her surrounded by family members. This detail proved significant to him because, as he explains, you can hide who you are one-on-one, but you can't hide in front of your family. If you're fake, family members will call you out. This experience gave him confidence that Owens was genuine.
Understanding the Social Autopsy Controversy
Tatum watched Owens' explanation about Social Autopsy on the Rubin Report and found her account reasonable. According to what he gathered from both her public statements and private conversations, Owens created the platform while she was still a social justice warrior and leftist, genuinely believing it was a good idea at the time. When trusted people came to her explaining that the concept could be dangerous and could be used against the very people she thought she was helping, she listened and abandoned the project.
Tatum makes an analogy to illustrate his perspective: it would be like creating a modified Power Wheels that goes three times faster than store-bought versions, thinking it would give kids a fun experience, only to have someone point out that without seat belts, children could fall out at high speeds and die. Why would someone apologize for intending to kill kids when that was never the intent? The intent was just to make a fun machine. When informed it could be harmful, the reasonable response is to abandon the project—which is exactly what Owens did.
He questions why people expect Owens to apologize for something she never intended to be harmful, especially when she immediately stopped the project once the potential dangers were explained to her.
People Change: Tatum's Own Political Journey
Addressing criticisms about Owens' past anti-Trump text messages, Tatum gets personal. He invites critics to look at his own Facebook page from Obama's second term, where they'll find him arguing that Obama was the best president and would go down in history as such. He defended Obama's policies tooth and nail, completely brainwashed and foolish in his thinking. But he doesn't care about that now—he was wrong, he learned, and he changed. Does that make him a traitor? No, he was simply mistaken and grew beyond that perspective.
Addressing Absurd Criticisms
Tatum takes issue with some of the specific criticisms he's heard in other conservative videos about Owens. One argument particularly bothers him: the claim that Owens isn't genuinely about helping the black community because her lineage isn't from Africa. He finds this reasoning asinine. By that logic, anyone who is mixed race can't do anything for the black community. Furthermore, black communities are incredibly diverse—someone who grew up in Watts, Los Angeles has a completely different experience from someone who grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Should that mean neither can speak about issues affecting the other's community?
What matters to Tatum is whether what someone says is factually true. If Owens appeared on television saying things that weren't based in fact, he would have a problem. But what she's saying identifies with facts and aligns with things he knows to be true as someone who grew up in and around the hood his whole life.
He also addresses claims that Owens only loves white people, calling this an illegitimate critique and essentially a personal attack. How would anyone know who this woman loves? These critics are making hypothetical judgments about hypothetical situations, basing their assessments on unverified information or things they've mixed together to create an image of someone they've never met, then projecting that image into this person's future.
The Opportunistic Label and the Kanye West Connection
Some critics have called Owens opportunistic. Tatum asks directly: if Fox News calls and asks for an interview about something you just said, are you supposed to turn it down? If Kanye West publicly supports you, are you supposed to pretend it never happened? No—you use that platform to your advantage to better your cause.
He clarifies an important point about Kanye West: nobody he knows is saying that Kanye is a conservative or that he's on the conservative team. Kanye West is still trying to figure out who he is and what his political views are. Kanye never said he was a conservative or that he agreed with President Trump on policy—he said he likes Trump because he likes who Trump is as a person. Kanye knew and admired Trump before he became president; he's just the only rapper willing to be real about it. Nobody is saying Kanye West is somehow the voice of conservatives. What Kanye is doing is opening up dialogue for freedom of thought, and that's why people like Owens and Turning Point USA pay attention to it—because it represents people not having to be slaves to predetermined thoughts.
Personal Experience Matters
Tatum emphasizes that his support for Owens is based on personal experience. He's met her several times, had phone conversations with her, they text regularly, and they work together. He's had conversations with her after she met with Kanye West, about her concerns and fears, about her being inspired by certain things. If you've never talked to the woman, you don't know how she really feels—you're going off what somebody else says she feels.
He honestly believes Owens is genuine. If she somehow flips out in the future and becomes somebody he doesn't recognize, then it is what it is, and he'll call a spade a spade. But right now, the woman is on fire, and it's not a coincidence that people from all walks of life are paying attention to what she's saying.
The Bottom Line
Tatum's final point is simple: nobody cares about hypotheticals from someone's past. What matters is what is true right now, what someone is saying right now, and whether it's true or phony. You can grow up in a black community and lie through both sides of your mouth—that doesn't make you better just because you grew up in a certain community. He supports Candace Owens and believes she's a legitimate person. Critics can project hypotheticals about her past into an imagined future if they want, but that's on them.
