Candace Owens won’t take back conspiracies about Charlie Kirk’s death after meeting with Erika Kirk

By Elle Reeve, CNN

(CNN) — In her first podcast episode after what she described as a 4.5-hour conversation with Erika Kirk, conservative podcaster Candace Owens said Tuesday that she still does not believe that the person charged with murder for Charlie Kirk’s death is solely responsible.

Erika Kirk’s efforts to tamp down on speculation about her husband’s murder have not appeared to dissuade Owens, one of the nation’s most-watched personalities, who has seen her prominence grow while boosting conspiracy theories and antisemitic tropes about Charlie Kirk’s death.

Owens said Tuesday that her suspicions about certain employees at Turning Point USA, the conservative organizing group Kirk co-founded and where she once worked, hadn’t been assuaged by her meeting with Erika Kirk and other Turning Point staffers. Owens heavily implied that she believes Israel had something to do with Kirk’s death, promoting an unsubstantiated theory that Israeli officials have denied and that some of her critics say is evidence that she is boosting antisemitism.

Owens’ campaign following Kirk’s September 10 assassination has driven deep divisions within the MAGA influencer world. Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and comedian Dave Smith have all defended her to some degree, while Tim Pool and Ben Shapiro have both described Owens’ actions as “evil,” and Nick Fuentes has said she’s a narcissist hurting America.

Tyler Robinson, 22, has been charged with aggravated murder in Kirk’s death, and authorities have said bullet casings from the shooting were inscribed with internet and video game memes, including, “Hey fascist! Catch!” Prosecutors have also released text messages between Robinson and his roommate in which Robinson says he shot Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred.” Robinson has not yet entered a plea.

Owens has instead suggested France, Israel and Egypt might have been involved; that Charlie Kirk was “betrayed” by people close to him; and that state and federal law enforcement are covering up a bigger crime.

By Owens’ retelling, Erika Kirk came prepared to debunk some of Owens’ claims, bringing phone records and having Owens speak to a lawyer to explain how the investigation would proceed through court. But Owens said Turning Point did not have any inside information on the investigation and no access to unseen evidence.

“With that in mind, I’m saying why is the public being gaslit on this?” Owens said. She called the evidence presented in the police affidavit “fake and gay,” one of her catchphrases.

Erika Kirk has not commented on their meeting beyond a post Monday night on X in which she said “a very productive conversation” with Owens and was turning her attention to AmericaFest, a signature Turning Point event scheduled to feature several top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration and conservative influencers.

In earlier interviews, Owens’ targeting of Turning Point employees was one of the main objections Erika Kirk raised to Owens’ “investigation.” Kirk said on Fox News last week, “Call me what you want. Go down that rabbit hole, whatever. But when you go after my family, my Turning Point USA family, my Charlie Kirk show family, when you go after the people that I love, and you’re making hundreds and thousands of dollars every single episode going after the people that I love, because, somehow, they’re in on this? No.”

If her goal was to get Owens to stop doing that, it appears to have been unsuccessful. And three days after CBS aired a town hall in which Erika Kirk noted that she and Charlie Kirk had visited and admired Israel, Owens opened her episode with a sarcastic intro that began, “OK everybody, Shabbat Shalom.” She replaced her typical theme music with a rendition of “Hava Nagila,” the Jewish folk song.

One of Owens’ most outlandish claims is that Erika Kirk was being followed by Egyptian airplanes for years. On CBS, Erika Kirk disputed the claim that she and the Egyptian planes had been in the same place at the same time.

“If you want to go through my flight log, go right ahead. It’s very boring. You say I was here on this date. I have a photo on my phone to prove that I actually was in the hospital because I was having contractions,” Kirk said.

That people have mocked the Egyptian plane theory is only proof that it’s true, Owens said. “I know why these planes have caused such panic, and it is because there is overwhelming evidence that these planes regularly fly in and out of Israel. … Tomorrow I will show you how these planes tie back to Israel, and there’s no disproving this.”

Owens’ unfounded theories have generated an audience, and those who rely on social media algorithms have acknowledged that, implicitly or explicitly. Hours before Owens’ podcast aired on Tuesday, Megyn Kelly claimed on her own podcast that it was she who brought Kirk and Owens together. “I have been working behind the scenes to try to foster a day between them,” Kelly said. “I really fully believe God’s role for me here is to possibly play a role in getting this whole thing to a better place.”

She also noted, “I love the Turning Point guys. And I don’t believe for one second any of them had anything to do with Charlie’s murder.”

Owens told her audience she would never sell out. But many of her fans in the YouTube comments were angry, having anticipated a showdown with Erika Kirk that would have created more fireworks.

“The best part of this episode is the comments as they validate my deflation,” one said.

“How disappointing, we’ll never know the truth.. she said so much and absolutely NOTHING at the same time,” wrote another.

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