Candace Owens Is Under Fire

Conservative commentator Candace Owens is under fire after using her YouTube channel to suggest that Charlie Kirk’s killing last week in Utah was not a random act of violence.

Instead, Owens claimed Kirk was targeted because of his outspoken views on Israel, even going so far as to allege that a tense private meeting with billionaire Bill Ackman and others in the Hamptons was part of a larger plot.

“You don’t think they wanted Charlie silenced because he wouldn’t fall in line on Israel?” she told her audience during a recent livestream.

Her theory quickly met pushback, including the people she directly named. Ackman issued a lengthy statement denying her account, calling it “reckless and false.” He insisted he never threatened Kirk, never blackmailed him, and never offered money to sway his views. Natasha Hausdorff, one of the people Owens claimed was in the room, also spoke out, rejecting Owens’ depiction of a heated or hostile confrontation.

She was with Turning Point USA when she started out and they were friends after she left. However, they operated independently in their own spheres. Her claim that he was her “best friend” and like her “brother” is not totally accurate.

Charlie Kirk’s Views on Israel

Mr. Kirk questioned what was going on in Israel, but always remained pro-Israel.

He was critical of some secular Jewish leaders who he said are behind a lot of the Marxism we see. ADL was behind Black Lives Matter. Some top Jewish organizations backed woke. That is not all Jewish people.

Kirk also said he doesn’t know how Israeli officials and military didn’t know October 7 was taking place. At the time, he added he was very pro-Israel, and he offered alternatives to Prime Minister Netanyahu knowing.

While Charlie said he wanted Israel to win the war and backed them, he has said he sometimes questions how they go about it. Publicly, that is how Charlie seemed to feel shortly before his death. He had criticisms about them not doing a better job with PR and daily briefings.

Charlie allegedly told someone who told Harrison Smith confidentially that he was afraid Israel would kill him if they went against him. Smith thought he meant he was afraid of losing his position. There is no evidence this is accurate or what Charlie meant if he said it.

Charlie spoke with Ben Shapiro about the genocide claim. It was merely to get his take. They were friends.

This was Ben’s response. He has given this response to other hosts.

It got Erick Erickson to the point that he claimed Charlie was antisemitic and conservatives need to break with him. Erick’s a big RINO who runs at the first sign of trouble.

I personally see nothing antisemitic or anti-Israel here. The comment about fearing being killed is hearsay from an anon. Trash it.

The Rebuttal

On Tuesday, Andrew Kolvet, the executive producer of Kirk’s show, debunked Owens’s claims about Ackman in a tweet that read:

I have been asked about the Bill Ackman event more than a few times now so I asked our staff who were traveling with Charlie to find out what’s true and what’s not. His team was with him “100% of the time when he wasn’t in his hotel room.”

Here’s what they told me:

“Bill never yelled at Charlie, never pressed him on Bibi, never gave him a list of Charlie’s offenses against Israel.”

There was concern raised about having Tucker at SAS (we don’t believe this came from Bill) and Charlie’s reply was: “Honestly, people telling me not to have Tucker makes me want to have Tucker, and I am going to lock him in for AmFest too.”

Charlie personally told me he had a very cordial relationship with Bill and the event was productive.

Those are the facts.

Ted Cruz posted on X:

“I’m getting really tired of Tucker & his cronies falsely claiming “Charlie agreed with me that Israel is terrible & the problem in America is all the damn Jews….”

“I knew Charlie well & indeed the very last conversation we had was how deeply concerned he was about the rising, toxic wave of antisemitism on the right.

Charlie was a man always in search of truth. That’s what his debates were about. He would often challenge people and play Devil’s Advocate.

He was America First, but was always pro-Israel. To say Israel was behind his murder without an ounce of evidence is reckless. The allegation seems to mostly rest on a third party comment about being killed that could easily have been misconstrued. Harrison Smith even said he thought the person meant he’d lose his position. Did he even say it?