Candace Amber Owens Farmer (néeOwens; born 1989) is an American political commentator and pundit. She is mostly described as conservative or far-right.
Owens has gained recognition for her conservative activism—despite being initially critical of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party—as well as her criticism of Black Lives Matter.[6] Owens served as communications director for the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA from 2017 and 2019.[7] In 2018, Owens co-founded Blexit along with former Tucson police officer Brandon Tatum.[8] After working for PragerU, in 2021 Owens joined The Daily Wire and began hosting Candace, a political talk show.[9] She was dismissed in March 2024 following a series of comments widely regarded as antisemitic, and months of tensions with co-host Ben Shapiro and other Daily Wire staff.[10]
She is a graduate of Stamford High School in Connecticut.[16] In 2007, while a 17-year-old senior at Stamford High School, Owens received three racist death threat voicemail messages, totaling two minutes, from a group of white male classmates which included the son of then-mayor and future Democratic governor Dannel Malloy.[17][18][19][20] Joshua Starr, the city's superintendent of schools, listened to the voicemail messages and said that they were "horrendous".[20] Owens's family sued the Stamford Board of Education in federal court, alleging that the city did not protect her rights, resulting in a $37,500 settlement in January 2008.[16][21]
In 2015, Owens was CEO of Degree180, a marketing agency that offered consultation, production, and planning services that included a blog on a variety of topics[14][3] written by Owens and other commentators.[23] In a 2015 column that Owens wrote for the site, she criticized conservative Republicans, writing about the "bat-shit-crazy antics of the Republican Tea Party"; she also added that "The good news is, they will eventually die off (peacefully in their sleep, we hope), and then we can get right on with the OBVIOUS social change that needs to happen, IMMEDIATELY."[14][24][25][26] In 2016, the blog featured an article mocking Donald Trump's penis size.[3][27][28]
Privacy violation, Gamergate, and political transformation
Owens launched SocialAutopsy.com in 2016, a website she said would expose bullies on the Internet by tracking their digital footprint.[14][24][16] The site would have solicited users to take screenshots of offensive posts and send them to the website, where they would be categorized by the user's name.[16] She used crowdfunding on Kickstarter for the website. The proposal was immediately controversial, drawing criticism that Owens was de-anonymizing (doxing) Internet users and violating their privacy.[14][29] According to The Daily Dot, "People from all sides of the anti-harassment debate were quick to criticize the database, calling it a public shaming list that would encourage doxing and retaliatory harassment."[30] Both conservatives and progressives condemned the website.[14]
In response, people began posting Owens's private details online.[14] With scant evidence, Owens blamed the doxing on progressives.[14][29] Following that, she earned the support of conservatives involved in the Gamergate harassment campaign, including right-wing political commentators such as Milo Yiannopoulos and Mike Cernovich.[14] Subsequently, Owens became a conservative, saying in 2017, "I became a conservative overnight... I realized that liberals were actually the racists. Liberals were actually the trolls... Social Autopsy is why I'm conservative."[14] Kickstarter suspended funding for Social Autopsy, and the website was never created.[29]
On November 21, 2017, at the MAGA Rally and Expo in Rockford, Illinois, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk announced that Owens had been hired as the organization's director of urban engagement.[32] Turning Point's hiring of Owens occurred in the wake of allegations of racism at Turning Point.[3] In May 2019, Owens announced her departure as communications director for the organization.[7][33] While at Turning Point USA, Owens received the support of prominent figures in the Republican Party. President Trump called her a "very smart thinker," while Republican National Committee chair Ronna Romney McDaniel said at CPAC "People like Candace Owens, like Charlie Kirk, we need more leaders like that."[34][35]Ted Cruz expressed his admiration for Owens by jokingly suggesting in 2022 that she be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States.[36]
In April 2018, Kanye West tweeted: "I love the way Candace Owens thinks."[37] The tweet was met with derision on the part of many of West's fans.[38] In May 2019, Owens hosted The Candace Owens Show on PragerU's YouTube channel.[39] She left PragerU in 2020 to host Candace, a show on The Daily Wire.[40] The show premiered on the platform on March 19, 2021.[41] Its episodes were filmed in front of a live studio audience and aired weekly. Notable guests included former United States president Donald Trump, UFC president Dana White, and U.S. Representative Jim Jordan. Jeremy Boreing announced Owens would be leaving The Daily Wire in March 2024,[42][43] a move believed to be related to a string of comments considered to be antisemitic culminating in Owens liking a tweet referencing blood libel.[44][45] Since June 2024 she has produced her podcast independently.[46]
In April 2020, Owens announced her intention to either run for office in the U.S. Senate or to be a governor, and that she would only run against an incumbent Democrat, not a Republican.[47] She did not reveal which specific office she would run for, or in which election cycle.[47] In February 2021, Owens tweeted that she was considering a run for president in 2024.[48]
BLEXIT Foundation
"Blexit", a term originally coined by Me'Lea Connelly, is a portmanteau of "black" and "exit" that mimics Brexit, the word used to describe the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. The original Blexit movement was started in 2016 by Connelly with the goal of achieving black economic independence by encouraging black Americans to leave the traditional financial systems that have historically disadvantaged the black community.[49][50][51]
In late 2018, Owens launched a different BLEXIT[a] foundation,[52][53] which featured a social media campaign to encourage ethnic minorities, including African Americans and Latinos, to leave the Democratic Party and register as Republicans. At the time, 8% of black Americans identified as Republicans.[13] In 2023, Blexit foundation merged with Turning Point USA, the former non-profit organization for which Owens had worked.[54]
At the launch in October 2018, Owens said that her "dear friend and fellow superhero Kanye West" designed merchandise for the movement; the following day, West denied being the designer and disavowed the effort, saying: "I never wanted any association with Blexit ... I've been used to spread messages I don't believe in."[55][56][57] After an apology, West continued to support Owens as of September2020[update].[58]
Product promotion
In July 2021, Owens announced the launch of a device named the Freedom Phone, which sold for $500, was marketed toward Trump supporters and which she claimed was "not controlled by Apple or Google".[59] The device's launch was criticized by tech publications for a lack of transparency about the device, as well as security concerns.[60][61][62][63] The device was later revealed to be a white-label version of the Umidigi A9 Pro, a Chinese smartphone available for $120,[59] and its "uncensorable" PatriApp store is a rebranded version of Aurora Store, an open-source frontend for the Google Play Store.[63]
Owens said she had no interest in politics whatsoever before 2015, but previously identified as liberal.[67][68] In October 2018, she said that she had never voted and had only recently become a registered Republican.[68] In January 2019, Owens stated: "The left hates America, and Trump loves it."[69] She added that the left is "destroying everything through this cultural Marxist ideology."[69]
Owens is known for her criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement,[5][75][76][77] and has described Black Lives Matter protesters as "a bunch of whiny toddlers, pretending to be oppressed for attention".[78] Owens has argued that African Americans have a victim mentality, often referring to the Democratic Party as a "plantation",[75][70] stating in 2020: "Black lives only matter to white liberals every four years—ahead of an election."[79] She has also argued that the American Left likes "black people to be government-dependent",[80] and that black people have been brainwashed to vote for Democrats.[4] Furthermore, Owens has argued that police brutality in the United States and instances of police killing black people are not sourced in racism, but typically occur when the officer feels his life is under threat,[75][78] adding a police officer is eighteen-and-a-half times more likely to die at the hands of a black person than vice versa.[24][70][69] She has also characterized abortion as a tool for the extermination of black babies.[14]
She has said that "black Americans are doing worse off economically today than we were doing in the 1950s under Jim Crow", adding that this is because "we've only been voting for one party since then."[69] She has attributed economic improvements for African Americans, such as a low unemployment rate, to Trump's presidency.[69] On several occasions, Owens has claimed that the effects of white supremacy and white nationalism are exaggerated and would not reach her own personal top 100 list of modern issues facing black America,[81] especially when compared to other issues facing black Americans, such as black-on-black crime and illiteracy rates.[82]
When asked if it was problematic that white supremacist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), support Trump, Owens answered that antifa was more prevalent than the KKK.[69] Owens has said that the media cover the KKK during Trump's presidency to hurt him.[83] In a 2019 hearing on hate crimes, Owens referred to the KKK as a "Democrat terrorist organization".[84] After the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Owens said that concern over rising white nationalism was "stupid".[14] She has also called it "just election rhetoric" and "based on the hierarchy of what's impacting minority Americans, if I had to make a list of 100 things, white nationalism would not make the list."[85] In 2018, Owens dismissed reports of a resurgence in hate crimes, saying "All of the violence this year primarily happened because of people on the left."
Owens in 2019
During her April 2019 testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on the rise of hate crimes and white supremacists in the United States, Owens made the claim that the Southern strategy employed by the Republican Party to increase political support among white voters in the South by appealing to racism against African Americans was a "myth" that "never happened". This was disputed by several historians who said that the existence of the Southern strategy was well documented in contemporaneous sources dating back to the Civil Rights era, with historian Kevin M. Kruse, who writes critically about modern conservatism, calling Owens's statement "utter nonsense".[86] In June 2019, Owens said that African Americans had it better in the first 100 years after the abolition of slavery in the United States than they have since,[87][88][89] and that socialism was at fault.[87]
In June 2020, Owens claimed that George Soros paid people to protest the murder of George Floyd.[90] Shortly afterwards, she argued that George Floyd "was not a good person. I don't care who wants to spin that."[91] She said: "The fact that he has been held up as a martyr sickens me."[91] Then-President Trump retweeted Owens's remarks about Floyd.[91][92] In a Facebook video that garnered nearly 100 million views, Owens called Floyd a "horrible human being", citing his criminal record, and called racial biases among police a "fake narrative."[93] On April 20, 2021, Owens claimed that the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who was convicted of murdering Floyd was "mob justice". She added: "This was not a fair trial. No person can say this was a fair trial."[94]
Women's rights
Speaking at CPAC Hungary 2022
Owens is critical of feminism[95] and embraces the "trad wife" phenomenon of traditional gender roles.[96] She has described the #MeToo movement, an international movement against sexual harassment and assault, as "stupid".[2][97] Owens wrote that the movement was premised on the idea that "women are stupid, weak & inconsequential".[2][97] She opposes abortion,[74] which she has called a tool for the "extermination of black babies".[14]
In May 2018, Owens suggested that "something bio-chemically happens" to women who do not marry or have children, and she linked to the Twitter handles of Sarah Silverman, Chelsea Handler, and Kathy Griffin, saying that they were "evidentiary support" of this theory.[98][99] Silverman responded: "It seems to me that by tweeting this, you would like to maybe make us feel badly. I'd say this is evidenced by ur[sic] effort to use our twitter handles so we would see. My heart breaks for you, Candy. I hope you find happiness in whatever form that takes."[98] Owens responded, accusing Silverman of supporting terrorists and crime gangs.[98]
LGBT rights
On July 28, 2017, Owens stated she was in favor of banning transgender individuals who are undergoing sex reassignment surgery from serving in the United States military but said that she did not oppose fully transitioned transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military.[100] In her biography, Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation, in the chapter "On Overcivilization - The Trend Towards Overcivilization", she talks about her view between civilization, in which she described as when basic rights and liberties have been ensured for all, and "overcivilization" in the following quote:
Civilization was achieved for gay couples in the United States when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in 2015. Overcivilization, however, is the LGBTQ community's current quest for transgender rights, or, more accurately described, the demand that biological men who self-identify as women be granted legal permission to use ladies' restrooms and dominate women's sports competitions.
—Candace Owens, Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation[101]
In April 2022, she called The Walt Disney Company "child groomers and pedophiles" and called for the boycott of the company, after Disney announced its opposition to Florida House Bill 1557, officially known as the "Parental Rights in Education Act" but commonly referenced as the "Don't Say Gay" legislation.[102][103][104][105]
In May 2022, Owens falsely claimed on Twitter that the gunman involved in the Robb Elementary School shooting could be transgender and said that he was "cross-dressing".[106] According to Owens, this was evidence that "there were plenty of signs that he was mentally disturbed".[107] In June 2022, she described Drag Queen Story Hour as "child abuse", arguing that parents who take their children to a drag queen story hour "are underqualified to have children" and "should have their children taken away from them."[108]
In January 2024, in a post on X (Twitter) Owens accused transgender people of "mass drugging children" and claimed the "LGBTQ movement brought with it a sexual plague on our society". These comments were widely condemned by LGBT+ campaign groups as variously misinformed, homophobic, transphobic and genocidal.[109][110]
Donald Trump
Although in 2015 Owens posted anti-Trump and anti-conservative articles on her Degree180 blog,[3][27] in 2017 she began describing herself as a conservative Donald Trump supporter.[14][111][112] Owens has since characterized Trump as the "savior" of Western civilization.[5] She has argued that Trump has neither engaged in rhetoric that is harmful to African Americans, nor proposed policies that would harm African Americans.[24][70]
In May 2018, Trump said that Owens "is having a big impact on politics in our country. She represents an ever-expanding group of very smart 'thinkers', and it is wonderful to watch and hear the dialogue going on... so good for our Country!"[113] She registered as a Republican in 2018, after the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination. She objected to what she termed the "social lynching" of Kavanaugh, on the grounds that to "believe women" was the reason "our ancestors got lynched", as she told a journalist from Philadelphia magazine. She added: "No evidence, but believe all women."[114] After Joe Biden won the 2020 U.S. presidential election and Trump refused to concede, Owens promoted Trump's claims of mass fraud, saying that "the American election was clearly rigged."[115]
Immigration
Owens is a proponent of the Mexico–United States border wall,[116][117] and believes undocumented immigrants to the United States should be immediately deported.[14] In 2018, Owens warned that "Europe will fall and become a Muslim-majority continent by 2050. There has never been a Muslim-majority country where sharia law was not implemented." She suggested that the United States would then be "forced to save" the British.[118][119]
Science
Owens has stated that she does not believe in science which she described as a pagan faith. She stated, "I'm not a flat-earther. I'm not a round-earther.' Actually, what I am is, I am somebody who has left the cult of science. I have left the megachurch of science because what I have now realized is that science—what it is actually, if you think about it—is a pagan faith."[120]
Climate change
In July 2018, Owens claimed that global warming is not real, calling it a lie used to "extract dollars from Americans".[121][122][123] In 2021, she promoted paid ads on Facebook, calling the U.S. government "modern doomsayers" who have been wrongly predicting climate crises for decades.[124][125]
Welfare
Owens has expressed a critical stance on welfare programs, arguing that they can create dependency and discourage self-reliance among recipients. She believes that welfare reform is necessary to promote individual responsibility and empower individuals to break free from government assistance. Owens has said that welfare is a Democratic Party tool to keep black Americans dependent upon the government.[74]
Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany
Representative Ted Lieu playing a recording of Owens's statements on Hitler and Owens responding to it
At the launch of Turning Point's British offshoot Turning Point UK in December 2018, Owens made comments about Adolf Hitler.[126] She was responding to an audience member who asked for a "long-term prognosis" about the terms "globalism" and "nationalism". Owens said:[126][127]
I actually don't have any problems at all with the word "nationalism". I think that the definition gets poisoned by elitists that actually want globalism. Globalism is what I don't want. Whenever we say "nationalism" the first thing people think about, at least in America, is Hitler. You know, [Hitler] was a national socialist, but if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, okay, fine. The problem is that he wanted—he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize. He wanted everybody to be German, everybody to be speaking German. Everybody to look a different way. That's not, to me, that's not nationalism.
Following heavy criticism for her comments, Owens clarified them on Twitter and in a Judiciary Committee hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives in February 2019.[128] Owens said that "[Hitler] was a homicidal, psychopathic, maniac that killed his own people" and "[Hitler] was not a nationalist, [he] murdered his own people; a nationalist would not kill their own people". She said that the point of her comments was to say that there is "no excuse or defense ever for... everything that [Hitler] did".[126][129] She also said that her comments were about Hitler's crimes against Jews.[128]
Owens's comments about Hitler were played in April 2019 by Representative Ted Lieu during testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee about the issue of increasing hate crimes and white supremacy in America. Lieu said that he did not know Owens and was just going to let her own words characterize her, before playing the audio clip. Owens responded that Lieu had deliberately omitted an interviewer's question that provided critical context to her words, with the intent of misrepresenting them as an endorsement of Hitler, to smear her reputation.[130] She concluded this testimony by stating her opinion Lieu was "assuming that black people will not pursue the full two hour clip" and that the full clip had been "purposefully extracted" in order to "create a different narrative."[131]Donald Trump Jr. praised Owens on Twitter for "[calling] out the Dems on their purposeful manipulation of facts for their narrative".[132]
In July 2024, Owens released an episode of the Candace Show on YouTube entitled "Literally Hitler. Why Can't We Talk About Him?" During this episode, Owens criticized mainstream narratives regarding Nazi Germany, saying that education about the Nazis was indoctrination comparable to "Soviet tactics." Owens further denied that Nazi medical experiments were carried out by Josef Mengele on concentration camp inmates, claiming the fact that such experiments occurred was "bizarre propaganda. The idea that they just cut a human up and then sewed them back together. Why would you do that? Even if you're the most evil person in the world, that's a tremendous waste of time and supplies." Owens referred to the Holocaust as "an ethnic cleansing [that] almost took place," while criticizing the expulsion of Germans after World War II, saying the Allies "actually did [an ethnic cleansing]."[133][134][135]
COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination
In April 2020, Owens said that COVID-19 deaths were overcounted; health experts said that it was more likely that COVID-19 deaths were undercounted.[136] Regarding a COVID-19 vaccine, she said in June 2020 that "under no circumstances will I be getting any #coronavirus vaccine that becomes available. Ever. No matter what."[137] She also referred to Bill Gates as a "vaccine-criminal", and said that he and the World Health Organization (WHO) used "African & Indian tribal children to experiment w/ non-FDA approved drug vaccines."[138][139] On August 8, 2021, Owens said in a Facebook post: "I still have not received the COVID-19 vaccine and have not demanded that any of my employees get it either. I am proud that I committed myself to standing firm against the bribery, media propaganda, coercion, celebrity-peer pressure campaign, plus censorship... It is isn't easy to swim against such a polluted current but here I am. I trust my gut much more than trust Dr. Fauci."[140] Also in August, Owens claimed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) proposed "putting high risk people into camps to 'shield' low risk people from them".[141]
In 2021, Owens attracted media attention when she stated that the United States should "invade Australia",[142][143][144][145] saying that Australia had turned into a tyrannical Nazi-style police state due to its public health precautions against COVID-19.[142][146] Owens said that the comments were made "in jest" and that they had been misinterpreted by the media.[147] Owens has promoted misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.[154] In a December 2021 interview, she asked Donald Trump about vaccine mandates, and he explained that he shared her views on mandates but said that "the vaccine is one of the greatest achievements of mankind". He added: "The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don't take the vaccine. But it's still their choice. And if you take the vaccine, you're protected. Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get it, it's a very minor form. People aren't dying when they take the vaccine."[155][156][157] In December 2022, Owens promoted the anti-vaccine film Died Suddenly.[158]
Russia and Ukraine
In 2022, after Russia's full invasion of Ukraine, Owens promoted a quote by Russian President Vladimir Putin[159] which included the false assertion that the USSR created the modern country of Ukraine.[160] Her views have received support and amplification from the Embassy of Russia, Washington, D.C., particularly following her tweet stating "Russian lives matter".[161][162] In March 2022, Owens faced criticism from historian Anne Applebaum for claiming that Ukraine "wasn't a thing until 1989" and dismissing the notion of a Russian-led genocide in the country, prompting Applebaum to label Owens as ignorant of history.[163]
In December 2022, Owens faced backlash and fact-checking on social media after making unfounded claims about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's wife Olena Zelenska, with Twitter users debunking her allegations and highlighting the lack of evidence.[164][165][166]
Jews and Judaism
Following her departure from the Daily Wire after she was accused of antisemitism, Owens downplayed the prevalence of antisemitism, stating that "people who are now screaming 'antisemitism is everywhere!' are actually just racial supremacists."[167] According to Media Matters, Owens criticized Jordan Peterson for calling far-right commentator Nick Fuentes a "psychopathic rat" after Fuentes tweeted that Jews control the Biden administration. Owens suggested that Fuentes could be correct based on the number of Jewish officials appointed to the Biden Administration, saying that "it seems a weird tweet for [Peterson] to be so disturbed about." Owens further referred to Fuentes as having "a very long background of focusing his attention on Israel and Zionism, and that's what he is reacting to."[168] Fuentes had previously praised Owens, saying she was waging "a full-fledged war against the Jews."[169] Owens falsely claimed in an interview with Tristan Tate, brother of Andrew Tate, that Joseph Stalin was Jewish, and that Sigmund Freud and Stalinists were part of a Jewish cabal. Owens claimed that Freud studied Kabbalah and promoted pedophilia through psychoanalysis.[170]
In July 2024, Owens suggested that Ashkenazi Jews trace their origin to Khazars and are not related to "biblical Jews". According to her, descendants of Khazars were "so immoral and so corrupt" that they were forced to convert to Judaism by Persians and Russians in the eighth century. However, they did not "meaningfully convert" and "carried on their corruption, carried on their sexual deviancy". She suggested that "their religious teachings tell them to infiltrate everywhere" and "[their] elites are disgusting, despicable people". Owens implied that the war in Ukraine is linked to the Khazars' desire to seek revenge on Russia and Iran. She went on to blame instances of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church on them.[171][172]
During a live broadcast on August 18, 2024, Owens claimed that Leo Frank, a Jewish businessman who was wrongly convicted of murder and lynched in the US state of Georgia in August 17, 1915, had killed Mary Phagan as part of a ritual murder on Passover, again referencing blood libel. Owens further claimed there existed a "Frankish Cult...masquering behind Jews" that engages in pedophilia and incest "as sacramental rites". She stated that there are "tens of thousands of pedophiles [who] hide from justice in Israel".[173] Owens's father-in-law Lord Farmer has publicly repudiated her repeated antisemitic remarks.[174][175] Owens was disinvited from a Trump campaign fundraiser in the summer of 2024 following criticism from Jewish groups.[176]
Owens is a critic of Israel and increasingly stridently expressed her negative views of the country during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war.[179] In October 2023, she criticized an Israeli strike on a church in Gaza, in which Christians were killed, tweeting "I have been disgusted by the propagandists pretending a Christian church was not bombed. Christians were killed. No Christian should stay silent", and later "If you think it's antisemitism to notice that innocent Christians were killed in an IDF bombing, then you need to log off."[180] Clarifying her views in early November, Owens tweeted "No government anywhere has a right to commit a genocide, ever."[181][180][179]
Her stance on Israel led to her break with Ben Shapiro, co-founder of The Daily Wire, the website for which Candace Owens then worked, contributing to her departing it in March 2024. Shapiro saw her position as increasingly antisemitic: Owens criticised US support for Israel, saying she did not believe "that American taxpayers should have to pay for Israel's wars or the wars of any other country", but also posted about "political Jews" and a "very small ring of specific people who are using the fact that they are Jewish to shield themselves from any criticism", comments Shapiro described as "absolutely disgraceful".[182][183]
Legal issues
Kimberly Klacik lawsuit
During an Instagram livestream on June 22, 2021, Owens accused former Republican congressional candidate Kimberly Klacik of money laundering, tax fraud, illegal drug use, and misusing campaign funds. Owens also said that Klacik is a "madame" who recruits strippers for a strip club owned by her husband.[184][185][186][187] Owens said she found out about this after talking with a woman who claimed to have worked as a stripper at Klacik's strip club.[188]
Klacik denied the allegations and repeatedly asked for Owens to take down the video, which she refused to do.[185][186] In July, Klacik filed a lawsuit against Owens seeking $20 million for defamation and claiming that the allegations have resulted in Klacik losing political support from donors, being removed from public events, a book deal cancellation, and harassment of Klacik and her family.[184][186][188] In a statement, Jacob S. Frenkel, Klacik's attorney, said: "The defendant chose to use her huge social media platform to attack a respected Baltimore political figure" and that "We are using the proper forum — the power of the courts — to respond."[186][188] The suit was dismissed with prejudice in December 2022 and Klacik had to pay Owens $115,000.[189]
Other
In October 2020, Owens sued Lead Stories and USA Today after they fact-checkedFacebook posts she had made downplaying the COVID-19 pandemic, alleging their articles had led to her being unable to obtain advertising revenue from her Facebook page and the termination of a deal with Facebook to advertise her book Blackout.[190][191] Owens created a website to solicit donations for the lawsuit.[192] The lawsuit was dismissed in July 2021, with the judge ruling that her posts contained COVID-19 misinformation.[190] The lawsuit's dismissal was upheld in February 2022.[191]
In August 2018, Owens had a dispute with Sam Lucas, cousin of Mollie Tibbetts, who had been murdered by Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a 24-year-old Mexican undocumented immigrant.[194] Tibbetts's cousin said that Owens had exploited Tibbetts's death for "political propaganda".[195][196] Owens responded by describing Lucas's criticism as a "strange" attack on Trump supporters. Later that month, the University of Iowa's chapter of Turning Point USA criticized Owens for "public harassment" towards a member of Tibbetts's family, and the executive board members of the chapter all resigned in protest.[197]
Support of Kanye West
On October 3, 2022, during Adidas Yeezy SZN 9 fashion show in Paris, Owens posed for a photo with Kanye West wearing a matching shirt with the "WHITE LIVES MATTER" slogan.[198] During Paris Fashion Week, West entered negotiations with Owens's husband, the CEO of social networking service Parler, to purchase the website.[199] After West posted tweets declaring he would "go Death Con 3 on Jewish people"; Owens defended West, stating that "if you are an honest person, you did not find this tweet antisemitic".[200] Owens further accused the Anti-Defamation League of instigating antisemitism following the organization's criticism of West and Kyrie Irving.[201] Owens's comments were made before West praised Adolf Hitler in an InfoWars interview. After the interview, Parler announced that West had canceled his plans to buy the website.[202] The Zionist Organization of America condemned Owens's defense of West, calling on her to "retract her offensive, dangerous statements."[203]
RabbiShmuley Boteach has repeatedly criticized Owens for her friendship with West. Owens condemned Boteach as a "monster", stating that "any person who defends him or his hag daughter is immediately suspicious." Owens has also claimed that in Hollywood, there is "a small ring of specific people who are using the fact that they are Jewish to shield themselves from any criticism" and that this ring "appears to be something that is quite sinister."[204][205][206] In March 2024, Owens liked a tweet asking Boteach if he was "drunk on Christian blood again," an apparent reference to the antisemitic blood libel accusation. The Daily Wire announced they were ending their association with Owens a few days after Owens liked the tweet.[207][44][208]
Promotion of conspiracy theories
Owens has been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories, including claims that the Moon landings were faked,[209] mostly through her social media profiles and television and media appearances.[210] Addressing a 2022 tweet about the Moon landing being "faked", Owens stated on comedian Bill Maher's Club Random podcast that she does not know or care enough about the Moon landing to call it a hoax, stating that she has "never cared about the topic."[211] Owens has appeared on fringe conspiracy websites, such as InfoWars.[24][4] In 2018, she was a guest host on Fox News, and began to distance herself from the far-right conspiracy websites, although she refused to criticize InfoWars or its hosts.[14]
During the October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts targeting prominent Democrats, Owens took to Twitter to promote the conspiracy theory that the mailings were sent by leftists.[212] After authorities arrested a 56-year-old suspect who was a registered Republican and Trump supporter, Owens deleted her tweet without explanation.[213]
In March 2024, Owens endorsed the false conspiracy theory that Brigitte Macron, wife of French PresidentEmmanuel Macron, was secretly transgender. Owens stated she was "willing to stake my entire professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man... The implications here are terrifying."[214] In France, on RMC Story, she was described as a "disgusting transphobic antisemite" by feminist activist Yael Mellul.[215]
Mention in Christchurch shooter's manifesto
Brenton Harrison Tarrant, the terrorist who committed the Christchurch mosque shootings, produced a manifesto prior to committing the shootings in which he wrote that Owens had "influenced [him] above all".[216][217] According to journalist Robert Evans, it was "possible, even likely", that Tarrant was a fan of Owens, considering her rhetoric against Muslim immigrants but that, in context, his references to her may have been an example of "shitposting" intended to provoke political conflict.[218][219] For instance, the line "Though I will have to disavow some of [Owens's] beliefs, the extreme actions she calls for are too much, even for my tastes" was assessed by The Root as trolling.[220]
Hours after the shootings, Owens posted a tweet in reaction to allegations that she inspired the mass murder, saying that she never created any content espousing her views on the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution or Islam.[221] Her tweet was criticized as "glib" when it was reported that she actually had posted tweets about the Second Amendment and Islam.[222][223][224][118] She later made formal statements rejecting any connection to the terrorist.[118]
Proposed 2024 Australasian tour
In late August 2024, Owens announced that plans for a speaking tour of five Australian cities and the New Zealand city of Auckland in November 2024.[225][226] In response, local Jewish groups including the Zionist Federation of Australia, the Anti-Defamation Commission, Dayenu and the Holocaust Centre called for the Australian and New Zealand governments to deny Owens entry due to her anti-Semitic views and remarks. Annetta Able, who survived Mengele's experiments, also called for Owens to be blocked from entering the country saying that Owens's denial of Nazi medical experiments "is not just deeply offensive, it is a dangerous distortion of historical truth that I witnessed with my own eyes. I still bear the physical and emotional scars of Mengele's cruelty. The pain, fear, and trauma I experienced were very real and to hear someone deny these atrocities is a fresh wound to my heart and an insult to the memory of those who perished."[227]
Similar calls were echoed by Coalition immigration spokesperson Dan Tehan, who called upon Home Affairs MinisterTony Burke to block Owens's visa application on character groups.[228][227] New Zealand Acting Race Relations Commissioner Saunoamaali'i Dr Karanina Sumeo criticised Owens's Holocaust denial and said that "freedom of expression must be balanced against people's right to be free from discrimination, the right to safety and security, and the right to religious freedom and belief."[226] By contrast, Juliet Moses of the New Zealand Jewish Council disagreed with calls to ban Owens' entry, citing free speech. Immigration New Zealand said that Owens's visa application would be subject to a character test.[226] During an interview with Sydney radio station 2GB, Owens confirmed that she would not be canceling her travel plans to Australia, saying that her husband had cousins there.[228]
On October 27, Immigration Minister Tony Burke said Owens's visa had been canceled based on her "capacity to incite discord",[229] stating "Australia's national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else."[230]
Ye is an American rapper, record producer, singer, songwriter, and fashion designer. One of the most prominent figures in hip hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After dropping out of college to pursue a career in music, West began producing for regional artists in the Chicago area. As an in-house producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, he co-produced albums including Jay-Z's The Blueprint (2001) before signing with the label as a recording artist. West's debut studio album, The College Dropout (2004), was met with critical acclaim and yielded the Billboard Hot 100-number one single "Slow Jamz". He peaked the chart on four other occasions with the singles "Gold Digger" (2005), "Stronger" (2007), "E.T.", and "Carnival" (2024).
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↑ Andriotis, AnnaMaria; Ensign, Rachel Louise (November 21, 2022). "Anti-Woke Bank GloriFi to Shut Down". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 18, 2024.
↑ Nagle, Angela (December 2017). "The Lost Boys: The Young Men of the Alt-Right Could Define American Politics for a Generation". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on May 20, 2019. Retrieved May 16, 2019. Candace Owens, a popular young black conservative also known as Red Pill Black, has mastered new media platforms, but in service of advocating for something closer to a traditional strain of conservatism: She's critical of the press, feminism, and open borders, but supports gay marriage.
↑ Owens, Candace (September 15, 2020). "4. On Overcivilzation". Blackout. Simon and Schuster. p.93. ISBN978-1-9821-3327-6. Archived from the original on March 30, 2021. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
↑ Owens, Candace (July 29, 2024). "LIVE! The Olympics Exposed Brigitte Macron | Candace Ep 34". YouTube. You should look into the Kazars and the of the Ashkanazis. [...] That documentary suggested that the people that are inhabiting Israel today are not the biblical Jews. [...] Prior to World War II, [...] the Israeli historians extensively wrote about the fact that they were the Khazars. [...] I think it was the eighth century, where the Khazarians mass converted to Judaism as their faith. To be clear, it was the people that were running this empire at the top who were just up to no good, and they carried on their corruption. They carried on their sexual deviancy despite pretending to have converted to Judaism. That doesn't mean the people that they ruled over didn't meaningfully convert. I'm sure they did, but the people at the top didn't. Russia and Persia, teamed up and crushed the Khazarian Empire. [...] There has been a theory for a while that what is happening is that the Khazarians are reassembling and that essentially they want to crush Russia and Iran. [...] It is my belief that these people are no more Jewish than they are Catholic than they are Christian. Their religious teachings tell them to infiltrate everywhere so that nobody knows who they actually are. [...] These elites are disgusting, despicable people, and they are pretending to be Jews. They are pretending to be Catholic. When you see these scandals that happen in churches and you look at who's actually behind them, these people were never Catholic to begin with.
↑ Owens, Candace (September 15, 2020). Blackout. Simon and Schuster. ISBN978-1-9821-3327-6. Archived from the original on March 30, 2021. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
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