A pair of MAGA firebrands were at each other's throats on Thursday over claims made in a series about Erika Kirk, the widow of the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Ben Shapiro, editor emeritus of conservative media company The Daily Wire, posted a video on X sharply criticizing MAGA radio host Megyn Kelly for not criticizing another MAGA firebrand, Candace Owens, over her claims that Erika Kirk participated in the assassination of her husband. Owens has made similar outlandish claims about Kirk in a podcast series called "Bride of Charlie."
"My critique of Megyn was 'Why don't you call out Candace Owens for implicating Erika Kirk in the murder of Charlie?' That was my critique," Shapiro said.
He added that Kelly claimed he was lying about Owens' claims, and argued that Owens was defending Erika Kirk in her video.
The claims caused a firestorm on social media between the two MAGA commentators.
"You handled your anger toward me in the most despicable way possible," Kelly told Shapiro on X. "Did you call me? Text me? Raise it with me privately after all we had been through together over the years? No, you attacked me on stage at the Turning Point event without so much as a heads-up."
"[Because] you were too chicken s--- to say it to my face," she continued. "I texted you afterward, and you never responded. You didn’t have the balls to have a face-to-face talk, or even a text or a call, about it. You are the coward, Ben. And your moral preening, priggish lectures, and holier-than-thou judgments are the reason you are losing fans and, more than that, friends, at a record rate."
.@megynkelly is a coward.@piersmorgan is a clickwhore.
None of that has anything to do with Israel or Jews. And criticism isn’t censorship.
Stop with your whiny Jussie Smollett fake victim routine. pic.twitter.com/Pgc9uRAGXV
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 12, 2026