The conservative media empire founded by Ben Shapiro has cut ties with Candace Owens, amid a lengthy public feud between the far-right pundit and Shapiro over the Israel-Hamas war.
“Daily Wire and Candace Owens have ended their relationship,” the outlet’s co-founder Jeremy Boreing tweeted on Friday morning. “The rumors are true—I am finally free,” Owens posted to her own X account. Representatives for The Daily Wire and Owens did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.
Owens joined The Daily Wire in 2021, hosting an eponymous, daily podcast prominently featuring her brand of vitriolic MAGA conservative commentary and conspiracy theories.
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Shapiro had often come to the defense of Owens’ rhetoric, but following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the pair began a very public battle that at one point featured The Daily Wire’s co-founder daring the star podcaster to quit.
The feud began last November when Owens tweeted that “no government anywhere has a right to commit a genocide.” While she did not specifically mention the State of Israel, her remarks were widely condemned by her fellow conservative media figures. Soon after, Shapiro publicly called Owens’ behavior “disgraceful” and chided her “faux-sophistication” on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Days later, their feud became even more personal. Owens posted to X a series of Bible verses suggesting “you cannot serve both God and money.” That pointed remark was viewed by many as a not-so-subtle use of the antisemitic “dual loyalty” trope against Shapiro, who responded: “Candace, if you feel that taking money from The Daily Wire somehow comes between you and God, by all means quit.” Owens hit back that Shapiro, currently editor emeritus of The Daily Wire, was “utterly out of line” and “acting unprofessional and emotionally unhinged for weeks now.”
That same week, Owens appeared for a friendly interview on Tucker Carlson’s web show, where she lamented Shapiro’s “ad hominem attacks” and said she would not respond to him on a “level of intellect” because “there’s nothing that he has expressed... that he fundamentally disagrees with in terms of what I said.” Carlson agreed, taking issue with how Shapiro had skipped past saying “‘I don’t think she’s correct’ or ‘Maybe she doesn’t know what she’s talking about,’” and went straight to labeling her “absolutely disgraceful.”
But Owens’ rhetoric about Jewish people appeared to reach a new low this week when she liked a social-media post asking conservative rabbi Shmuley Boteach whether he is “drunk on Christian blood again”—an overt reference to the antisemitic “blood libel” canard that has regained popularity on the far-right via QAnon. (Days earlier, Owens dabbled in other antisemitic tropes by suggesting there’s a Jewish “gang” in Hollywood.)
Shapiro and Owens had previously come into public conflict in October 2022 when Owens defended Kanye West’s tweet that “I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” Owens said of the MAGA rapper’s shocking post: “if you are an honest person, you did not think this tweet was antisemitic.”
At the time, Shapiro appeared hesitant to criticize Owens, one of The Daily Wire’s most influential personalities. “On a personal level, I get Candace defending her friend,” he said at the time, offering only a tepid rebuttal: “I don’t think her defense... is convincing.”
But Shapiro hasn’t been so gentle this time around.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Shapiro is no longer an executive at The Daily Wire and is not Owens’ boss.
