Liberal Vice President Teena McQueen shocked the Q&A audience when she publicly defended Donald Trump, described Milo Yiannopoulos as an “entertainer” and claimed white supremacy is “not growing” in Australia.

The Liberal Party federal representative became the focus of criticism and mockery on Monday night’s program for her outrageous comments, which also included an accusation that Greens leader Richard di Natale spews hate speech.

Making her Q&A debut, Ms McQueen began the program by rushing to the US President’s defence as the release of Robert Mueller’s report into collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign was discussed.

Does the Mueller Report now give President Donald Trump a free hand to do whatever he wants? #QandA pic.twitter.com/a1DibD66gA

— QandA (@QandA) March 25, 2019

Ms McQueen falsely declared Mr Trump had been “exonerated” by the Mueller report, which found no evidence of collusion with Russia.

“There’s nothing there. I mean, it’s two years of wasted presidency, two years of the Democrats going crazy and, you know, he did nothing to interfere with the report,” she said.

To make it seem she knew exactly what she was saying, Ms McQueen then made reference to the pair’s brief meeting when Mr Trump was running Miss Universe pageants.

“I think I may be the only person here that’s actually spent time with Trump,” she said.

“He was not racist, not sexist, none of those things.”

Have watched #Qanda professionally for five years. Have never seen a trainwreck on the level of Lib federal VP Teena McQueen. Who let her do this? @Qanda

— Neil McMahon (@NeilMcMahon) March 25, 2019

Feminist author and fellow panellist Roxanne Gay provoked applause from the audience when she shot back at Ms McQueen, saying “just because you didn’t have an experience with him doesn’t mean he hasn’t done these terrible things”.

Ms McQueen went on to defend Mr Trump’s “grab her by the p***y” comments.

“I just made a joke about a cock earlier on,” she said. “I don’t think there’s much difference there.”

Ms Gay disagreed.

“I joke about bodies constantly, it’s awesome, but I’m not going to talk about grabbing a woman’s body just because I have an attraction to her. It’s called self-control,” she explained.

As the debate turned to free speech following the Christchurch massacre, Ms McQueen described controversial far-right activist Milo Yiannopoulos “as an entertainer”.

“No-one could possibly take Milo seriously,” she said.

Ms Gay immediately disputed her claim, saying “hundreds of thousands of people in the United States take Milo seriously”.

“They follow him. They pay money to go see him speak,” she said.

Ms McQueen later called out the Greens leader for supposedly engaging in the “worst hate speech I’ve heard recently”.

Teena McQueen says Richard Di Natale used hate speech against Andrew Bolt #QandA pic.twitter.com/rQd2v2zmGs

— QandA (@QandA) March 25, 2019

Ms McQueen accused Mr di Natale of having “incited violence” against News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt.

“The vile language used against conservatives is disgraceful”.

Labor MP Tony Burke interjected, saying: “I am going to defend Richard Di Natale in this, absolutely,”

“To imply that somebody who is standing up against racism is guilty of the same sort of hate speech as the people who have allowed the hatred that we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks to fester and to have a base and be legitimised by so many people — it just doesn’t add up,” Mr Burke said.

In response to a video question about the rise of neo-Nazism in Adelaide, Ms McQueen advised they simply “call the police and you get these people dealt with and carted away”.

With signs of neo-nazi activity in Adelaide, am I in danger? #QandA pic.twitter.com/vpngRpsqhe

— QandA (@QandA) March 25, 2019

“Perhaps I’m in a bubble – I don’t see the growth of white supremacists that I hear constantly,” Ms McQueen said after host Tony Jones pressed her about whether she understood why people were scared.

“I mean, I’ve been to Adelaide many times, and I’m not doubting the questioner there, but if you see evidence of something like that, there’s laws to protect people from that, and you get them carted off and deal with them,” she said.

-with agencies