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PHOENIX — Admonishing young women to keep "your standards so high that real men would strive to achieve your respect," Utah Republican Rep. Burgess Owens defined in a weekend speech what he believes "real men" do and don't do.
"I'm going to tell you how to recognize real men, OK, young ladies? Young men, listen up, gotta man up, here we go," he said Sunday at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest in Phoenix.
Founded by conservative activist and radio show host Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA advocates for conservative values on high school and college campuses. Other speakers at the conference included Donald Trump Jr., Tucker Carlson and Kyle Rittenhouse.
Owens suggested men should be ready to use a gun, stand against transgender athletes and not stay silent about COVID-19 vaccine trials for children and infants.
"Real men when evil steps up to the doorstep do not get on their knees and beg for mercy for the wife and kids. He's prepared himself. Just like he knows how to use an iPhone he knows how to use a gun, and he shows up and takes care of business," Owens said, drawing applause and cheers from the crowd.
"He's determined to never, never allow his wife and kids to look at him as a whiner, weenie and wimp."
Owens, who wrote a book titled, "Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps," made similar comments about men using guns to defend their families in the past.
'Certain laws, certain standards'
A former NFL football player who won a Super Bowl with the Oakland Raiders, Owens also repeated his position on transgender women competing in sports.
"Real men do not stand by silently as biological men compete against women, take their life's worth and feel no shame. He understands that God put in place certain laws, certain standards," Owens said. God, he said, "created two genders, men and women. Period."
Owens railed against a Pfizer and BioNTech announcement last week to expand ongoing clinical trials of their COVID-19 vaccines in children to include a third dose for participants as young as 6 months old. The companies said two doses did not produce a robust immune response in kids 2 to 5 years old.
"Real men do not stand silent as our kids are being used as guinea pigs," he said. "This is a father who's a coward, he's a whiner, weenie and wimp that lets a 6-month little baby be vaccinated so that CNN feels good about it. Unbelievable."
In his speech, Owens also attacked critical race theory, saying "real men would not stand by cowardly as leftists teach our children to hate others based on race."
The first-term congressman also said "real men" do not stand by and watch children and women being trafficked at the southern border with Mexico.
"It doesn't matter if those children are ours or not. Those children are ours. Period. And we should never stand by and let this evil ideology, this godless ideology use, abuse and discard these beautiful children and women for the sake of power and profit," he said.
Owens faces reelection in 2022. So far, Republicans Jake Hunsaker and Nick Huey have launched campaigns to unseat him. Huey challenged Owens to a lie detector test earlier this year. Owens did not respond to the invitation.
