Former MTV reality star and Bad Boy Records signee Aubrey O’Day is defending comments she made about dictators Fidel Castro and Adolf Hitler during an appearance on a conservative political show on Monday.

The former Danity Kane vocalist stunned viewers of The Sean Hannity Show on Monday night when she referred to Castro and Hitler as “brilliant” men — although we think “manipulative” was the word she was looking….

“As someone who has met [Castro]… I met him and worked with him while I was in Cuba. I’m not defending his behavior, but in many instances, but I do have to say, I will 100% agree, he’s an incredibly brilliant man, he has outlived tons of our presidents,” the singer giggled.

When the panel questioned her remark, Aubrey remarked, “I’m sure many murderers are brilliant people.”

“Was Hitler a brilliant man?” Hannity asked O’Day.

“Listen, I don’t condone Hitler one ounce, but yes, he was a brilliant man. He ran a country and convinced everyone of horrible things,” she remarked.

O’Day released a statement clarifying her remarks late Tuesday.

“Murderers and dictators generally are some of the smartest people out there – they just use their brain power for evil purposes,” the singer says. “I don’t condone any of their evil behavior, but I was asked about their intellectual firepower… and in my opinion you can’t have a low IQ and wreck (sic) that much havoc on the world. What Hitler succeeded in doing, was deplorable… And I hope we never see such an abusive use of power again, ” Aubrey added.

O’Day also explained her meetng with Castro, writing, “I was a college student on a program called Semester at Sea. Through that program, chosen political science students attended a half-day seminar of (sic) Fidel Castro and his thoughts on basically everything except Cuba’s relationship with the U.S… It was very interesting.”