Right-wing commentator Candace Owens responded Wednesday to The Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro’s sharp criticism of her comments regarding the Israel-Hamas war, telling Tucker Carlson in an interview that though she would not be making “ad-hominem attacks,” her fellow right-wing commentator should be “embarrassed” over his handling of the situation.
Shapiro’s criticism of Owens seems to stem from a Nov. 3 tweet of hers in which she wrote that “No government anywhere has a right to commit a genocide, ever.” She added: “There is no justification for a genocide. I can’t believe this even needs to be said or is even considered the least bit controversial to state.”
Owens stood by her statement in two tweets that afternoon after conservative commentator Dave Rubin questioned her on it—though she notably never mentioned Israel or Palestine.
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Shapiro was later filmed on an unspecified date talking to a group of people about Owens’ comments.
“I think her behavior during this has been disgraceful. Without a doubt,” he said. “I think that her faux sophistication on these particular issues has been ridiculous.”
When asked by Carlson to respond, Owens largely bit her tongue—though she did say Shapiro has not reached out to her personally to discuss their disagreement, despite their shared employer.
“I can’t respond to it beyond what he’s saying because it’s just ad-hominem attacks,” she said.
Carlson also took issue with what Shapiro had to say.
“Yeah, because it’s not, ‘We disagree’ or ‘I don't think she’s correct’ or ‘Maybe she doesn’t know what she’s talking about,’” the former Fox News host said. “It’s ‘absolutely disgraceful.’”
“Exactly. So I can’t respond to it on a level of intellect because there’s nothing that he has expressed—at least in that short clip—that he fundamentally disagrees with in terms of what I said,” Owens said. “But I will say that I’m not going to respond with ad-hominem attacks. I don't think it helps further the discussion.”
Owens added that if she were Shapiro she would be “embarrassed” to have been filmed talking that way. She went on to say that she and Shapiro have not seen eye to eye on other topics like the COVID vaccine, but that shouldn’t be cause for concern.
“I would hope that amongst colleagues, it would always be civil disagreements,” she said. “I would hope that it would remain respectful, and that you wouldn’t throw your colleagues under the bus, so to speak.”
Yet the pair continued their beef Wednesday night on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In response to another tweet from Owens’—this one including Bible verses and the phrase “You cannot serve both God and money”—Shapiro wrote, “If you feel that taking money from The Daily Wire somehow comes between you and God, by all means quit.”
Owens replied minutes later, accusing Shapiro of having been “acting unprofessionally and emotionally unhinged for weeks now.”
“And we have all had to sit back and allow it and have all tried to exercise exceeding understanding for your raw emotion,” she added. “But you cross a certain line when you come for scripture and read yourself into it. I will not tolerate it.”
Owens did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.
