After Ben Shapiro accused her of “cowardice” for refusing to denounce Candace Owens’ conspiracy theories and Bari Weiss amplified Shapiro’s condemnation, Megyn Kelly returned fire by claiming that the Daily Wire founder and CBS News editor-in-chief “are making antisemites” with their overt pro-Israel stances.
The former Fox News host’s swipe against Shapiro and Weiss comes amid the roiling MAGA civil war that exploded into public view during this past weekend’s AmericaFest, the annual year-end convention held by prominent right-wing youth organization Turning Point USA.
With the American conservative movement already tearing itself apart in recent months over the Epstein files and Tucker Carlson’s chummy interview with notorious white nationalist Nick Fuentes, Owens threw more gasoline in the fire in recent weeks by peddling increasingly unhinged claims about TPUSA chief Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Owens, a far-right provocateur who shot to fame as a host for Shapiro’s Daily Wire and once served as TPUSA’s communications director, has sparked backlash among conservatives for wildly asserting that Kirk may have been killed by Israeli government figures with the help of senior Turning Point staffers, suggesting it was due to Kirk’s supposed change of heart on the Gaza war.
As Owens continued to lean further into antisemitism with her baseless claims, Kelly has stood by her fellow right-wing podcaster and even took credit for setting up a “detente” between Owens and Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk who called on Owens to “stop” pushing conspiracies about her slain husband’s death.
During his Thursday night speech at AmericaFest, which directly followed Erika Kirk’s address, Shapiro lashed out at Kelly, Carlson and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, whom Shapiro referred to as “a PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein.” Calling the influential right-wing figures “charlatans” who “traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty,” he blasted Carlson’s “moral imbecility” over the Fuentes interview while taking specific aim at Kelly for her embrace of Owens.
“There is only one moral side here: Erika Kirk’s side,” he said. “You know, the side of the widow with two children whose husband was shot live on camera in front of all of us. Friendship with the person accusing TPUSA of a coverup of Charlie’s murder is no excuse for cowardice.”
While Kelly would respond in kind during her appearance at AmericaFest, much like Carlson and Bannon did, she also doubled down on her defense of Owens – and even applauded her for invoking Israel in the killing of Kirk.
“I don’t think Israel had anything to do with it,” Kelly declared from the stage. “But why did I have an obligation to stop Candace from asking those questions? I didn’t, and I didn’t call her out because I favored her asking them.”
Still, Kelly saved her harshest reactions to Shapiro for her follow-up interview with Vanity Fair, which also included a broadside against Weiss for adding herself to the fray – all while claiming that the two prominent Jewish media personalities were responsible for pushing conservatives towards antisemitism.
Much as Carlson had also claimed Shapiro’s criticisms from the TPUSA stage were due to his support of Israel, Kelly said “Ben is Israel first” while noting that Shapiro would likely call that charge antisemitic.
“And I’m sorry, but his behavior has proven that charge to be correct. Why would you divide the American conservative movement—which was gelling, which was becoming much more cohesive for a moment after Charlie died—over Israel!” Kelly pondered in her Vanity Fair conversation.
Kelly also made sure to add Weiss, who has described herself as a “Zionist fanatic” and is the founder of the stridently pro-Israel digital media outlet The Free Press, to her list. Weiss, installed as CBS News’ top editor this fall and currently under fire for pulling a 60 Minutes story on CECOT at the last minute, published a version of Shapiro’s speech in The Free Press and approvingly shared it on social media.
“It’s this very loud group of pro-Israel activists that is trying to make this the litmus test about whether you get to call yourself a conservative, and they lack standing to do that,” Kelly declared. “Bari in particular has made her career on the anti-cancel culture thing. Meanwhile, she’s never been canceled. And she’s basically supporting Ben’s attempt to cancel me from the conservative movement, of which she’s not a part.”
Adding that what “Charlie [Kirk] and I saw at the same time was that the country is turning” and “young Republicans are turning on Israel,” Kelly then accused Shapiro and Weiss of fomenting anti-Jewish hatred with their efforts at censoring criticism of Israel.
“They are making antisemites. Tucker is not making antisemites. They are,” Kelly stated, referencing allegations that Carlson is pushing antisemitic tropes with his rhetoric and conspiracy theorizing, an accusation the fired Fox News star vehemently denies.
Meanwhile, it would appear that the growing rift that has been splintering MAGA will not heal itself anytime soon.
Owens, despite her meeting with Erika Kirk last week, has doubled down on her crazed conspiracy theories and even recently hosted a “witness” who claimed to have seen Kirk at a military intelligence base a day before her husband’s death – seemingly as a way to implicate her in an assassination plot.
“A day later, Owens weighed in again with a staggeringly antisemitic video where she called Shapiro and his father “belly creatures who slither on” and urged her audience to read The Talmudic Jew, a nineteenth-century anti-Jewish tract that became popular with the Nazis,” The Bulwark’s Will Sommer wrote.
“That’s some sick stuff that would have been utterly disqualifying not too long ago,” Sommer added. “Yet only a few hours after that episode went live, Kelly said from the AmFest stage that she welcomed Owens’s questions about whether Israel was involved in Charlie Kirk’s murder.”
