Megyn Kelly Confronts Ben Shapiro on Candace Owens Ouster and ‘Free Speech’
A week after The Daily Wire parted ways with far-right pundit Candace Owens amid her lengthy public feud with the site’s co-founder Ben Shapiro, Megyn Kelly asked Shapiro if the ouster of the MAGA provocateur was proof that his publication is only about free speech “until it comes to Israel.”
Owens’ exit from the right-wing media empire came after months of increasing tension between her and Shapiro over the war in Gaza. The animosity between the two began heating up in November when Shapiro tore into Owens’ “disgraceful” comments on Israel committing “genocide,” prompting her to traffic in antisemitic “dual loyalty” tropes about Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew.
Days before her ouster, Owens liked a social-media post accusing a famous rabbi of being “drunk on Christian blood,” an overt reference to the antisemitic “blood libel” canard—generating even more controversy. She also peddled other antisemitic tropes when she complained about a Jewish “gang” in Hollywood.