The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro laid waste to podcaster Candace Owens and other conspiracy grifters capitalizing on the assassination of Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk.
Shapiro addressed the crowd at AmFest and savaged Owens for using Kirk’s death to spread false narratives about the nature of the shooting.
“It's the job of those of us who try to shape public opinion to hold politicians to account and to hold them accountable to our values,” Shapiro said. “We must not let fear of audience deter us from telling the truth. We must not let fear of other hosts deter us from telling the truth.”
Shapiro continued,
So, for example, if Candace Owens decides to spend every day since the murder of Charlie Kirk, If Candace Owens decides to spend every day since the murder of Charlie Kirk, casting an aspersion at TPUSA, and the people who work here who worked with Charlie every single day, his best friends, to cast dispersions at Mikey McCoy and Andrew Kolvet and Blake Neff and Tyler Bowyer, and yes, at Erika Kirk, and to imply or outright claim complicity in a cover-up over Charlie's murder, to spew absolutely baseless trash implicating everyone from French intelligence to Mossad to members of TPUSA in Charlie's murder, or a cover-up in that murder, then we, as people with a microphone, have a moral obligation to call that out by name.
“Erika Kirk and TPUSA never, never should have been put in the position to have to defend themselves against such specious and evil attacks, particularly in a time of morning,” Shapiro added.
The podcaster called out other commentators for remaining silent while Owens exploits Kirk’s death. “The people who refuse to condemn Candace truly vicious attacks, and some of them are speaking here, are guilty of cowardice. Yes, cowardice,” he said. “The fact that they have said nothing while Candace has been vomiting all sorts of hideous and conspiratorial nonsense into the public square for years is just as cowardly.”
OMIGOSH!!! Ben Shapiro just absolutely unleashed on Candace Owens from the AMFEST stage for attacking TPUSA & Erika Kirk over Charlie's death, and shamed everyone too afraid to stand up to her. pic.twitter.com/S25156VkYg
— Britta | NoSoup4Knowles (@nosoup4knowles) December 19, 2025
Since Kirk’s death, Owens has used her platform to concoct a series of elaborate — and completely unverified — conspiracy theories about the assassination. She has suggested that the Israeli and French governments were involved. She has claimed senior leaders at TPUSA “betrayed” Kirk and implied they either helped to orchestrate the plot or participated in a cover-up. Owens also suggested that Egyptian planes were shadowing Erika Kirk.
As of this writing, Owens has never provided any evidence backing up her claims. Her podcast channel has racked up millions of views since she began speaking on the assassination.
Owens and Erika Kirk recently sat down for a private meeting to hash out their differences. Owens previously stated that she would stop spreading conspiracy theories if Erika asked her to stop, which she did during a recent interview with CBS News’ Bari Weiss. Predictably, Owens isn’t stopping.