Why right-wing media can’t stop Candace Owens

The conservative media machine is currently discovering, to its evident horror, that it has no idea how to shut one of its biggest creations. Candace Owens was handed a megaphone by the late Charlie Kirk, feted by Donald Trump and praised by Focus on the Family as one of “the many Black giants of the conservative movement.” Now she is being called a vampire and a schizophrenic by the very people who built her platform. And she keeps growing.

With Kirk’s assassination at a Turning Point USA event in Utah last September, the MAGA movement faced a genuine tragedy. His widow, Erika Kirk, stepped in to lead the organization. But within weeks, before the grief had even begun to settle, Owens began publicly questioning the circumstances of Kirk’s killing and spinning conspiracy theories on her podcast. As a former TPUSA communications director — she resigned in 2019 after praising Adolf Hitler — Owens knew her voice had special resonance. What started as insinuation soon metastasized into a serialized spectacle: “Bride of Charlie,” a multi-episode YouTube series targeting Erika Kirk personally.

“I will tell you my personal opinion,” Owens told her audience. “What alarms me about Erika isn’t so much the fact that she lies, which we will prove to you over and over again, but it’s also the fact that I don’t know that she’s aware that she’s lying.”

An independently produced “investigative series” that is little more than Owens speaking to a camera while suggesting that the widow of a murdered man may be a fraud — or worse — the hour-long premiere episode racked up nearly five million views after it was released on Feb. 25. The second drew 1.8 million. 

In the series, which is still ongoing, Owens hints that Kirk’s murder was an inside job, suggests foreign agents may have been involved and implies that Erika Kirk has “ulterior motives” in leading TPUSA. She questions minor inconsistencies in divorce paperwork from Erika Kirk’s mother’s first marriage and ancestral records to dispute Kirk’s narrative that she was primarily raised by a “strong, independent single mother.” Owens also speculates about hidden Jewish connections and shadowy Romanian networks to imply that powerful “Zionists” orchestrated the assassination to prevent Kirk from challenging Israel policy.

The conservative establishment has, belatedly, tried to fight back against Owens’ accusations, but they have largely failed to land a blow. 

Want more sharp takes on politics? Sign up for our free newsletter, Standing Room Only, written by Amanda Marcotte, now also a weekly show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

An op-ed in the conservative Washington Times labeled her “a nut” and called on people to “stop listening to Candace Owens.” A USA Today op-ed claimed “Owens attacks Erika Kirk for clout” and argued that “Conservatives must condemn this and reject her outright.” Ben Shapiro, whose Daily Wire hosted Owens’ podcast for years, called the series “absolutely satanic.” Conservative commentator Meghan McCain blasted Owens’ campaign as “pure, unadulterated evil.” In the New York Post, Rich Lowry wrote, “Owens is like Perry Mason…if the fictional attorney had been a schizophrenic high on crack.”

“Candace knows I disagree with her on this,” said Megyn Kelly, who drew criticism following her initial defense of Owens and helped “facilitate” a private Dec. 15 chat with Erika Kirk.. But the former Fox News host also made sure to tout their relationship. “She and I have, actually, only gotten closer over the past couple of months as people try to make me attack her, so f**k off, OK?”

Criticisms from fellow travelers simply became content, proof of a coordinated, paid-for campaign to silence her. “For once, the left and the right are united on something,” Owens posted to X.

But the real reason right-wing media cannot stop Candace Owens is that they built her. And, more importantly, they built the engine that fuels her: the machinery of conspiratorial media, which is immune to the tools that might once have contained it. 

For decades, conservative media has thrived on a business model that monetizes outrage and distrust. The more outrageous the claim, the greater the engagement. The more distrust sowed toward institutions — universities, media, elections, public health, the FBI — the more loyal the audience becomes. In December, even as Owens was deep into Charlie Kirk assassination trutherism, Erika Kirk was urging TPUSA audiences to be tolerant of disagreeable views. By the time the right decided Owens had gone too far, she had already built a fully independent operation. The movement that once shielded Owens is now discovering that monsters raised on grievance do not recognize fences. The conservative movement no longer has credible gatekeepers. Right-wing media’s fragmentation means that condemnation from established outlets often strengthens, rather than weakens, insurgent figures like Owens. 

The conspiratorial right that Owens represents is not a fringe of the MAGA coalition. Progressive critics have sometimes made the mistake of treating her as merely a culture war provocateur rather than someone — something — more dangerous. She has said the earth may be flat, that the moon landing was faked, that dinosaur bones are manufactured in a factory somewhere and that Brigitte Macron, the French president’s wife, is a man. Owens has argued that Israel orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks and that Jews kill Christian children at Passover and use their blood in ceremonial matzah. These are centuries-old antisemitic blood libel conspiracy theories, dressed in the language of podcasting and influencer authenticity — and they are spreading. Owens is not alone in promoting them. Steve Bannon has amplified her narrative. Kari Lake and Alex Jones have echoed variations. 

For all its focus on Erika Kirk, “Bride of Charlie” is not really about her. Nor is it even really about Charlie Kirk. It is about an identity crisis on the American right —  what happens when a media movement decides that the thrill of the conspiracy, the pleasure of the accusation, the dopamine of the “truth bomb” matters more than the actual truth. Right-wing media cannot stop Candace Owens because they cannot renounce the incentives that made her powerful.

This tension is not going away. It mirrors broader fractures within MAGA-world over foreign policy, particularly U.S. support for Israel. It reflects a generational shift in how political influence is wielded. Perhaps most ominously, it exposes how readily antisemitic narratives can find purchase in spaces primed to distrust “globalists” and “elites.”

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to clarify how Candace Owens questioned the divorce documents of the first marriage of Lori Frantzve, Erika Kirk’s mother.