Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire cuts ties with Candace Owens following Israel-Hamas comments

The conservative commentators clashed over the conflict in Gaza

Candace Owens will no longer appear on Ben Shapiro’s conservative news website The Daily Wire, it was announced on Friday (22 March).

Controversial author Owens joined the media company in 2021 before falling out with co-founder Shapiro last year over her views on the Israel-Hamas war

“Daily Wire and Candace Owens have ended their relationship,” Daily Wire co-founder Jeremy Boreing tweeted on Friday morning.

“The rumors are true—I am finally free,” Owens shared on her own X account.

Representatives for The Daily Wire and Owens did not immediately respond to The Independent’s requests for additional comment.

Owens feud with Shapiro appeared to begin in November last year when Owens tweeted: “No government anywhere has a right to commit a genocide, ever. 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.”

Though she did not mention the conflict by name, her comments were widely interpreted to be referencing the war in Gaza.

She later tweeted a bible verse beginning: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

“You cannot serve both God and money,” she added.

Shapiro responded to the tweet on 15 November, writing: “Candace, if you feel that taking money from The Daily Wire somehow comes between you and God, by all means quit.”

Owens replied: “You have been acting unprofessional 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.

“But you cross a certain line when you come for scripture and read yourself into it. I will not tolerate it.”

Owens further addressed Shapiro’s comments during an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s eponymous X series.

Owens said she still did not have any “clarity” on Mr Shapiro’s criticism of her and that his remarks were “just ad hominem attacks”.

“I can’t respond to it on a level of intellect because there’s nothing that he has expressed in that, at least in that short clip, that he fundamentally disagrees with in terms of what I said,” she said.

“I will say that I’m not going to respond with the same ad hominem attack – I don’t think it helps further discussion – and if it was me that was caught on a video saying that about colleagues that I work with, I would be embarrassed.

“So I think that the video speaks more to Ben’s character than it speaks to mine.”

Her comments came after a video shared online showed Shapiro speaking at what appeared to be a private event, during which he described Owens’s “faux sophistication” of certain issues as “disgraceful” and “ridiculous”.

Owens went on to give “tremendous credit” to the Daily Wire for allowing differing opinions on the network, but added: “I would hope that it will remain respectful, and that you wouldn’t throw your colleagues under a bus so to speak.”