Conservative podcaster Candace Owens is facing a firestorm from within her own movement after speaking at a Kremlin-backed forum in St. Petersburg alongside sanctioned Russian officials — and the backlash from the right has been savage.
Radio host Mark Levin fired the opening shot Wednesday, calling Owens a "Woke Reich traitor" on X. Far-right activist Laura Loomer went further, demanding a federal investigation into whether Owens violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act — and suggesting she may be "auditioning to be the female Edward Snowden so she can avoid all accountability…" Loomer also took personal shots at Owens, appearing to mock a possible pregnancy and making an unverified allegation about her husband, George Farmer, and drunk driving.
When Russian state media outlet RT responded by posting a video about Loomer herself, Loomer accused Owens of having Russian state media "do her bidding" — calling it "not normal."
Conservative podcast duo Chicks on the Right piled on, with host Miriam Weaver calling Owens "the quintessential useful idiot to the Russian regime." Co-host Amy Jo Clark questioned whether Owens' trip was truly self-funded. "It's not like you really think they're using their own money to just go on vacation to Russia?" Clark said. "Come on."
The criticism extended to Tucker Carlson's brother, Buckley Carlson, who drew condemnation after posting that Americans should "embrace Russia as America's ally and reject the anti-Christian globo-homo agenda our government and the State Department have been pushing for more than a generation." Weaver called him "a piece of s--."
Owens had initially framed the trip as a family sightseeing vacation, but Raw Story reported she appeared on a panel at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum alongside Alexander Zharov — a Putin appointee under U.S. sanctions — and Anna Kuznetsova, a Russian parliamentarian sanctioned by the U.S. and European Union for her role in the forced deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories.
Russian state media promoted the appearance. RT posted a slideshow of Owens' photos. Alexander Dugin, the Kremlin-aligned philosopher, retweeted her on X.
The Free Press reported that Owens told them: "Grow up. No one is buying the propaganda against Moscow anymore." A spokesperson added she has never taken money or in-kind services from anyone working on behalf of Russia.
Hannah Gais, a senior researcher at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told Raw Story the appearance serves Kremlin interests regardless. "Candace Owens is following in a long line of right-wingers who have gone to Russia and see it as an ally in a conflict that they see as civilizational and existential in the West against liberalism," Gais said.