Far-right media figure Candace Owens has left The Daily Wire, a news site co-founded by conservative political commentator and Orthodox Jew Ben Shapiro, after months of publicly endorsing antisemitic ideas.
Jeremy Boreing, co-founder of The Daily Wire, posted the news to social media on Friday, writing that Owens and the company had “ended their relationship.”
Owens, who became a leading pundit for The Daily Wire shortly after joining in 2020, confirmed the news in a post on X: “The rumors are true – I am finally free.”
The circumstances of Owens’ departure from the platform are unclear and The Daily Wire has not responded to requests for further comment, but the news arrived on the heels of several months of animosity between Owens and Shapiro, over Owens’ espousal of antisemitic ideas across her social media platform.
The beginning of Owens’ foray into antisemitism appears to have been when she defended Kanye West after he famously tweeted that he was “going Deathcon 3 on Jewish people” in 2022, the first of a number of antisemitic remarks made by the rapper.
Kanye West and Candace Owens. (Photo by Jason Davis/Getty Images for DailyWire+)Getty Images for DailyWire+
But Owens had previously made questionable statements; in 2019, Owens said Adolf Hitler would have been “fine” if he had kept his nationalism local rather than trying to project it globally and in 2021, she compared mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for children to Nazi and Soviet youth programmes.
Owens began to clash with Shapiro in the wake of October 7, after which Owens became increasingly critical of Israel’s military response in Gaza. Shapiro, who is a staunch supporter of Israel, was filmed calling Owens’ behaviour “absolutely disgraceful” during a private event in November 2023.
Earlier this month, Owens suggested in Daily Wire video that “secret Jewish gangs” perpetrate “horrific acts” against people in Hollywood and proposed the idea that a “ring of Jews in Hollywood” is involved in “something quite sinister.” She also recently favourited a tweet repeating a false claim about Jews drinking Christians’ blood.
Her recent commentary has caught the attention of notorious antisemite and right-wing media figure Nick Fuentes, who said on his show that Owens “has been in a full-fledged war against the Jews.” The ADL, an antisemitism watchdog organisation, pointed out the connection between Owens and Fuentes, suggesting that Fuentes’ endorsement of Owens “sets off alarm bells.” In response to this comment, Owens wrote on X: “My crime is that I do not believe that American taxpayers should have to pay for Israel’s wars or the wars of any other country. I will not change my mind.” In the last few days, Owens has tweeted several times about being the victim of a “smear campaign” by the ADL.
It remains to be seen whether Owens’ departure from The Daily Wire is related to her disagreements with Shapiro on the subject of Israel.
In the March 21 episode of “The Breakfast Club” talk show, Owens told host Charlamagne tha God that Shapiro “doesn’t have the power to fire me.”
“As I explained on Tucker Carlson’s show, like, Ben doesn’t have the power to fire me,” she said. “And it’s not even saying that we disagree on Israel and Palestine. I just think that he’s — obviously, his wife is Israeli. He spends a lot of time in Israel throughout the year. I think when you have an emotional attachment to some place, that sometimes your reaction to anything is going to be more extreme to it. You know?”
Both Owens and Shapiro have been contacted for comments.
