Ben Shapiro’s conservative media empire has cut ties with
Candace Owens, amid a lengthy public feud between the far-right pundit and her bosses over the Israel-Hamas war.
“Daily Wire and Candace Owens have ended their relationship,” Shapiro’s co-founder Jeremy Boreing
tweeted on Friday morning. “The rumors are true—I am finally free,” Owens
posted to her own X account. Representatives for The Daily Wire and Owens did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.
Owens joined Shapiro’s outlet in 2021, hosting an eponymous, daily podcast prominently featuring her brand of vitriolic MAGA conservative commentary and conspiracy theories.
Shapiro had often come to the defense of Owens’ rhetoric, but following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the pair began a very public battle that at one point featured the Daily Wire co-founder daring his star podcaster to quit.
The feud began last November when Owens
tweeted that “no government anywhere has a right to commit a genocide.” While she did not specifically mention the State of Israel, her remarks were widely condemned by her fellow conservative media figures. Soon after, Shapiro
publicly called Owens’ behavior “disgraceful” and chided her “faux-sophistication” on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Days later, their feud became even more personal. Owens
posted to X a series of Bible verses suggesting “you cannot serve both God and money.” That pointed remark was
viewed by many as a not-so-subtle use of the antisemitic “
dual loyalty” trope against Shapiro, who
responded: “Candace, if you feel that taking money from The Daily Wire somehow comes between you and God, by all means quit.” Owens
hit back that her boss was “utterly out of line” and “acting unprofessional and emotionally unhinged for weeks now.”
That same week, Owens
appeared for a friendly interview on Tucker Carlson’s web show, where she lamented Shapiro’s “ad hominem attacks” and said she would not respond to him on a “level of intellect” because “there’s nothing that he has expressed... that he fundamentally disagrees with in terms of what I said.” Carlson agreed, taking issue with how Shapiro had skipped past saying “‘I don’t think she’s correct’ or ‘Maybe she doesn’t know what she’s talking about,’” and went straight to labeling her “absolutely disgraceful.”
But the Daily Wire in-fighting appeared to reach its final stage this week when Owens
liked a social-media post asking conservative rabbi Shmuley Boteach whether he is “drunk on Christian blood again”—an overt reference to the antisemitic “
blood libel” canard that has
regained popularity on the far-right via QAnon. (Days earlier, Owens dabbled in other antisemitic tropes by suggesting there’s
a Jewish “gang” in Hollywood.)
The pair had previously come into public conflict in October 2022 when Owens defended Kanye West’s tweet that “I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” Owens
said of the MAGA rapper’s shocking post: “if you are an honest person, you did not think this tweet was antisemitic.”
At the time, Shapiro appeared hesitant to criticize Owens, one of his media empire’s most influential personalities. “On a personal level, I get Candace defending her friend,” he said at the time, offering only a tepid rebuttal: “I don’t think her defense... is convincing.”
It appears Shapiro wasn’t so gentle this time around.
www.the-independent.com
