When the Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro spoke at Turning Point USA's AmeriFest convention on Thursday, December 18, he had some scathing words for someone he once employed: far-right conspiracy theorist and media figure Candace Owens.
This was the first AmeriFest gathering since the fatal September 10 shooting of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk. And Shapiro called out the conspiracy theories Owens has been promoting about him.
Owens has implied, without evidence, that everyone from the French Foreign Legion to Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, was involved in his murder.
Mentioning Owens, "War Room" host Steve Bannon, Infowars' Alex Jones and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson by name, Shapiro told the crowd, "Today, the conservative movement is in serious danger… from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty."
But the New York Times' Michelle Goldberg, in her December 21 column, argues that Frankenstein "monster" Owens is so prominent in right-wing media that MAGA won't be able to rein her in.
"This week, Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, traveled to Nashville to meet with Candace Owens, a podcaster who has become the premier purveyor of conspiracy theories about her husband's murder," Goldberg observes. "If the summit was meant to convince Owens to back off her paranoid and fantastical speculations, it failed. On Thursday, Owens had on her show a man who claimed to have seen Erika Kirk at an army base the day before Kirk's assassination, implying that Erika was somehow part of the plot against her husband. That plot also involves, in Owens' telling, the French Foreign Legion, the federal government and leaders of Turning Point, Kirk's organization, all somehow masterminded by demonic Zionists."
The liberal Times columnist continues, "Owens' musings are unhinged, but Erika Kirk's trip to Nashville, brokered by the conservative star Megyn Kelly, demonstrates that they've become too influential for right-wing leaders to ignore…. Kirk's killing, far from knitting the movement together in grief and anger, has precipitated a bitter, squalid internecine feud."
In 2024, Shapiro fired Owens from the Daily Wire for comments he considered antisemitic. But Goldberg stresses that Shapiro hasn't been able to slow down her momentum in right-wing media.
"In a world where traditional gatekeepers have lost most of their power," Goldberg laments, "she's a star. This is partly a story about conservatives creating a monster they can't control. Owens, after all, has been saying nutty things for a long time…. Rather than ostracize her, however, powerful conservative organizations cultivated her. Republicans invited her to testify before Congress about why white nationalism wasn't a problem…. Having elevated her in large part for her willingness to say outrageous things about her opponents, people on the right are now surprised by her willingness to say outrageous things about them."
Michelle Goldberg's full New York Times column is available at this link (subscription required).