In the wake of the right-wing extremist group Moms for Liberty citing an Adolf Hitler quote in its newsletter, Ryan Helfenbein, senior vice president of university communications at Liberty University over the weekend also cited Hitler – and Mao and Stalin – as he urged conservatives to “control education.”
Helfenbein is also the executive director of Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center, the former Falkirk Center that was renamed after the disgraced Jerry Falwell Jr. resigned as the university’s president. He allegedly is also part of the highly-secretive right-wing Council for National Policy, which has been described as a “pluto-theocracy” by journalist Anne Nelson.
Helfenbein appeared on-camera in an interview at a gala hosted by religious right activist Ralph Reed‘s Faith and Freedom Coalition.
“Parents and kids in elementary school are not questioning whether or not they’re a male or a female,” the interviewer said to Helfenbein. “We need to take that away. It’s really brainwashing a generation to (a) deny a maker, and deny their gender,” he added.
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“Yeah, wholly agree with that,” Helfenbein responded. “Basically, this is an evangelistic movement on the left, and that’s what’s happening. It’s indoctrination. I mean, they are proselytizing to the next generation. What we’re discovering as parents and conservatives is, ‘Wait a second: education really is evangelism.’ So if you do not control education, you cannot control the future. And Stalin knew that. Mao knew that. Hitler knew that. We have to get that back for conservative values.”
Helfenbein’s remarks appear to echo the Hitler quote an Indiana Moms for Liberty chapter had printed in their newsletter. According to NBC News it read: “He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future.”
After trying to explain the quote, and amid outrage, the Moms for Liberty chapter apologized.
Several versions of the video including Helfenbein’s remarks have gone viral on social media, garnering millions of views.
Helfenbein, on his Twitter account, did not apologize, but suggested his remarks were taken out of context. He posted a longer version of the viral clip, and tweeted: “In a thinly veiled effort to spin and smear, a leftist political group cut out the question entirely for this response.”
He also tweeted, “It’s clear that education in many pockets of America has been weaponized against students and parents to advance Marxist, gender & deconstructionist ideologies. Yet they will spin lies that conservatives are somehow to blame for desiring real education.”
Response to Helfenbein’s remarks has been critical.
“Kind of scary that senior university official believes Stalin, Hitler and Mao offer good examples for how US should structure education of America’s kids,” tweeted former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Steven Pifer. “Leads one to wonder how much Mr. Helfenbein understands about Stalin, Hitler and Mao.”
Producer and frequent political commentator Jeremy Newberger responded to Helfenbein’s tweet, saying, “Even with the question included you are suggesting emulating Hitler. SMH.”
A message to Helfenbein via Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center did not receive an immediate response.
Watch the version of the video Helfenbein posted below or at this link.