Candace Owens departs Ben Shapiro’s website after antisemitic commentary
Prominent right-wing commentator Candace Owens has left the Daily Wire, the website founded by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, after months of promoting antisemitic ideas.
In a statement posted to social media Friday morning, Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing said the company and the pundit “have ended their relationship.”
“The rumors are true – I am finally free,” Owens said in her own post.
The details of Owens’ exit weren’t immediately clear, but it follows increased tension over antisemitic rhetoric that pitted Owens against Shapiro, who is Jewish, and the rest of the site’s more mainline conservative figures.
The Daily Wire didn’t respond to a request for further comment. Owens couldn’t be reached for an immediate comment.
In a Thursday appearance on “The Breakfast Club” radio show, Owens acknowledged her strained relationship with Shapiro but claimed that “Ben doesn’t have the power to fire me.”
Owens’ split with the Daily Wire represents the latest example of a high-profile conservative figure contending with the expectations of a more staid employer. Last year, Fox News fired star host Tucker Carlson for reasons that were never made public but which came after he promoted conspiracy theories and disparaged Ukrainian leaders.
A telegenic presence and pugnacious social media warrior, Owens, 34, first rose to prominence on the right for her commentary skeptical of women who had been harassed during the 2014 “GamerGate” controversythat consumed the video game world. An unabashed booster and defender of Donald Trump, she launched a campaign in 2018 known as “Blexit” to try to encourage Black voters to leave the Democratic Party.
In 2020, she joined the Daily Wire – a Nashville, Tenn.-based conservative entertainment conglomerate with a massive following and ambitions to become a conservative alternative to Hollywood – and immediately became one of its leading pundits.
Her profile grew when rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, praised the way she “thinks,” both appearing at a 2022 fashion show wearing matching “White Lives Matter” shirts. But Ye had already moved into his new role as an erratic provocateur, recently making antisemitic comments – if occasionally apologizing – and speaking admiringly about Adolf Hitler.
Meanwhile, Owens began to use her Daily Wire platform to promote antisemitism – claiming this month on her show that “secret Jewish gangs” terrorize Hollywood – and recently favorited a tweet repeating a lie about Jews drinking Christians’ blood.
She has also clashed publicly with the avowedly pro-Israel Shapiro by criticizing the nation in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks.
“I think she’s been absolutely disgraceful,” Shapiro said in a recording posted on X in November. “I think that her faux-sophistication on these particular issues has been ridiculous.”
Owens shot back on X that “you cannot serve both God and money,” in what appeared to be a jab at her employer.
Still, the November feud appeared to have been settled, with Boreing releasing a statement saying Owens’ “job is secured.”