Candace Owens Out at ‘The Daily Wire’ After Fighting With Co-Founder Over Israel-Hamas War

Conservative firebrand Candace Owens has left the news outlet The Daily Wire after a war of words with the founder of the news brand, fellow far-right figure Ben Shapiro, which began shortly after the outset of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

Owens joined the partisan conservative news website, which gained traction during former President Donald Trump’s time in the White House, in 2020 and hosted a weekday commentary show for the brand, known for repackaging other news outlets’ reporting with a right-wing spin. The 34-year-old confirmed the news on Friday on X, the platform where most of the drama between the two conservative media figures played out. 

“The rumors are true — I am finally free. If you would like to support my work, you can head to http://CandaceOwens.com where you will be directed to my locals page,” Owens tweeted, then solicited for funds on another personal website. “There will be many announcements in the weeks to come.”

The rumors are true— I am finally free.

If you would like to support my work, you can head to https://t.co/fOcTKYQDFk where you will be directed to my locals page.

Or, you can give a gift at https://t.co/SB1L1WZYwW

There will be many announcements in the weeks to come. 🇺🇸✝️

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) March 22, 2024

Owens’ boss beat her to the punch, though. The Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing tweeted out the news about her employment to his followers 41 minutes beforehand, writing, “Daily Wire and Candace Owens have ended their relationship.” Shapiro has not yet commented on Owens’ departure.

Daily Wire and Candace Owens have ended their relationship.

— Jeremy Boreing (@JeremyDBoreing) March 22, 2024

The tension between the two stars of the conservative far-right began to play out online in mid-November, when Shapiro called out the “faux sophistication” Owens showed about the Israel-Hamas conflict; he then called her “disreputable” and “ridiculous.” She has been ramping up her criticism of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, where the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run region says the death toll is at around 32,000 since the war began.

Owens, the former communications director for conservative PAC Turning Point USA, who is never one to back down from a fight, replied with Matthew 5:11, a verse from the Bible, and added, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Shapiro replied to the host, “Candace, if you feel that taking money from The Daily Wire somehow comes between you and God, by all means quit.”

The Anti-Defamation League, the New York-based international Jewish NGO, decided to weigh on Owens on Thursday by bringing up Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, whom the advocacy group had tied to Owens earlier this week. On Thursday, the ADL had tweeted, “White supremacist & Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes is praising Candace Owens’ vitriolic antisemitism. It’s hardly surprising, but it does set off alarm bells: When bigoted people come together to push an antisemitic agenda, it adds fuel to the fire of hate.”

Owens replied to the ADL, writing on X that while she does not know Fuentes, she’s “grateful they have turned their smear merchant guns on me,” and that since “the world already knows my heart. Their attacks will have the opposite desired effect. Awaken world. Thank you, @adl.” 

Owens, who defended Kanye West’s antisemitic rant as he lost his partnerships including this lucrative deal with Adidas over the controversy, and appeared with the rapper it a Paris fashion show wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt, has called Israel’s campaign in Gaza “genocide” and has suggested “Jews are going to be blamed” if TikTok is banned.

Owens is the author of the Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape From the Democrat Plantation and in 2018, founded the social media campaign Blexit.