Utah Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) will not be attending Utah’s 4th Congressional District debate scheduled for Wednesday night, he recently revealed to Breitbart News, citing his “principles” regarding the event’s moderator — who presides over the Salt Lake Tribune paper that published a “racist” depiction of Owens as a KKK member last year and, Owens charged, still “stands behind” it.
In a video statement shared in advance with Breitbart News on Wednesday, Owens began by describing a “life-changing” incident during his upbringing amid racial segregation that left a lasting impression on him:
As a 10-year-old in the 1960s segregated South, I witnessed a life-changing event. As my mother and little sister were using a “white woman’s only” restroom at a service station, two white men attempted to break down the door to pull them out. I watched as my dad successfully fought these men off and afterwards ripped up the card to that gas station chain. Fifty years later, when talking about this event, my dad told me with pride “Burgie, I never bought another drop of gas from that gas station chain.” It was a promise that he made and kept until the day he died.
Owens described the event when his father “fought off those two bigots,” as the time he “saw what courage looked like.”
“Five decades later,” after his father informed him that he had never purchased another drop of gas from that chain since, Owens “saw what principle looked like,” he added.
Those values, Owens argued, were crucial in his decision to shun the debate, a move he attributed to a “racist” depiction of him on part of the moderator’s paper.
“Last year, the Salt Lake Tribune published a racist cartoon depicting me as a KKK member, the very same hate group that terrorized my family and my race as a youth in the South,” he said.
“The moderator selected by the Utah Debate Commission not only supported this bigoted cartoon, but she doubled down and defended it, even after the entire Utah delegation openly stated their disgust for such an ugly attack,” he added.
The @sltrib and @Patbagley compare me to the KKK, the radical hate group that terrorized me in my youth, because I am one of many sounding the alarm of the trauma being faced by women and children crossing the border. This is pathetic. #wokeracism pic.twitter.com/Tzcj4lPixL
— Burgess Owens (@BurgessOwens) April 15, 2021
After the editorial cartoon’s publication, Utah’s congressional delegation issued a stern condemnation over the matter.
In a joint statement at the time, Sens. Mitt Romney and Mike Lee and Reps. Blake Moore, Chris Stewart, and John Curtis called the depiction “beyond the pale.”
https://t.co/y4qjneb98w pic.twitter.com/d6S0AnpIdG
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) April 15, 2021
Despite “good faith efforts” in speaking with Chair Erik Nielsen, Owens claimed the Utah Debate Commission maintains its refusal to remove Lauren Gustus, the executive editor for the Tribune as the moderator for the 4th District’s debate.
As a result, the former Oakland Raiders Super Bowl champion described his decision to snub the event as due to the “racist” depiction of him, and the role of the moderator behind its publication.
“I will not, in good conscience, have anything to do with the racist Salt Lake Tribune and will therefore not participate in this debate,” he said. “I expect bias from such a liberal outlet, but racism is where I draw the line.”
“I will also not be bullied into participating in a forum with unabashed bigots,” he added.
Addressing Democrat nominee Darlene McDonald, Owens insisted that “while we may disagree politically,” he harbors “nothing but respect” for his political opponent.
“The constituents of District 4 deserve not only to hear our voices but also to have them discussed in our district,” he said.
“I have held numerous town hall meetings across our district and would love for you to join me and share our political views in person and directly with the voters of our district,” he added.
However, Owens offered an alternative forum for the event.
“We have allotted time on both October 22 and 29 to make this happen. Our teams can work together to work out the details, but I hope we can share a stage together over the closing weeks of this campaign,” he said.
Calling the move on the part of the Utah Debate Commission both “totally tone deaf” as well as a “disservice to the voters of the 4th District,” Owens described what the Salt Lake Tribune previously “published and still stands behind” concerning him as “appalling.”
The incumbent Utah Republican concluded by explaining the importance for his constituents “to hear from me why I will not turn my back on the injustices that my family and my race have experienced.”
“To participate in this sham of a debate would be doing just that,” he said.
“I look forward to debating Darlene in a setting not regulated by the partisan Utah Debate Commission,” he added.
Owen’s remarks come as the Utah Debate Commission published a statement that he had yet to confirm his attendance for the Wednesday evening event to be held at the University of Utah.
Owens has previously accused the “hard left” of encouraging “racism, inequality, [and] inequity.”
Last month, following Vice President Kamala Harris’s claims that the US-Mexico border is “secure,” Owens slammed President Biden and “Border Czar” Harris for the “unprecedented” humanitarian crisis every American is “paying the price” for due to the administration’s open border policies.
He also warned of the unprecedented number of illegal border crossings as well as the proliferation of deadly fentanyl across the country.
Recently, Owens announced his launching of a PAC supporting conservative minority candidates nationwide running for Congress in a bid to “break” the Democrat party and its “radical agenda.”
The new political committee, known as the “Just Win Baby” PAC, seeks to defeat Democrats and “continue the fight” in 2022.
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.