Meet Candace Owens, who left The Daily Wire amid shocking comments about Jewish people: the controversial conservative Blexit founder just fell out with the site’s co-founder Ben Shapiro

Mar 27 , 2024

Conservative commentator Candace Owens has left The Daily Wire. Photo: @realcandaceowens/Instagram

The right-wing commentator has slammed Israel’s military actions in Gaza, but her distasteful comments about Jewish people have led her to being labelled as antisemitic

She’s been controversial for years though: she’s against the Black Lives Matter movement, defended Kanye West amid his 2022 social media meltdown, and claimed Emmanuel Macron’s wife Brigitte is a man

Prominent conservative voice Candace Owens has parted ways with The Daily Wire, the right-wing website where she gained increased prominence amid growing tensions with the site’s co-founder Ben Shapiro. Although exact details haven’t been released, Owens and Shapiro have publicly taken shots at each other in recent months over her alleged antisemitic views.

While Owens has said that she’s “finally free”, this is just the latest in a string of controversial incidents involving the 34-year-old political commentator. Here is what you need to know.

The antisemitic allegations against Candace Owens

Candace Owens (right) with Donald Trump (centre). Photo: @realcandaceowens/Instagram

On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, killing more than 1,100 people and taking hostages. Israel then launched an attack on Gaza, killing more than 30,000 people to date, per The Guardian.

After Israel’s counter-attack last year, Owens criticised its military actions, writing on social media, “No government anywhere has a right to commit a genocide, ever. There is no justification for a genocide.”

Her statements were met with backlash, with some calling her comments antisemitic – an apparently common criticism from certain sectors towards anyone who makes negative comments about Israel’s military response.

However, on an episode of her show on The Daily Wire, she went even further, speaking about the possibility of a “sinister Jewish gang” in Hollywood, per Media Matters. She also drew sharp criticism for liking a post on X (formerly Twitter) that accused well-known Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of being “drunk on Christian blood”, per The Guardian. That comment is particularly harmful as it evokes the “blood libel” conspiracy – the false claim that Jews use the blood of non-Jews for ritual purposes – which was used by Nazis to defend the persecution of Jews, per the Holocaust Encyclopaedia.

Owens also defended Kanye West amid his antisemitic comments in 2022 when he posted on social media that he was “going death con 3 on Jewish people … you guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone who opposes your agenda”. Owens claimed the comments were not, in fact, antisemitic and that Ye saying “defcon” was not a threat or reference to the Holocaust, per Newsweek.

She even attracted the attention of Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, per Forbes, who praised her for a “full-fledged war against the Jews”. Owens retorted on X that she did not know him and thinks that “my crime is having stood up for myself against your [netizens’] network of smears”.