Candace Owens Responds After Not Being Invited to Speak at Kirk Memorial
Conservative podcaster and influencer Candace Owens responded to an inquiry from the UK’s Daily Mail last week, asking if she was planning to speak at Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s memorial service on Sunday.
Owens, once considered a close ally of Kirk, was notably absent from the lengthy list of speakers who included his widow, Erika Kirk, along with former Fox News star Tucker Carlson and President Donald Trump.
The inquiry followed reports after Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, claiming that Kirk had distanced himself from her “after her views became too extreme,” the New York Post reported last week, citing a TPUSA advisory board member.
Former Fox News and Newsmax host Eric Bolling said on Patrick Bet-David’s “PBD Podcast” this week that while Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens were once “tight” through their work at Turning Point USA more than a decade ago, their relationship eventually fractured. According to Bolling, the split came after Owens’ “theories got just a little bit too down the rabbit holes.”
Bolling, who told The Post he has served in several roles at Turning Point USA since 2015, including on its advisory, honorary, and editorial boards, also noted that Candace Owens does not have a relationship with Erika Kirk.
“It was too extreme for [TPUSA’s] taste,” Bolling said, adding: “Charlie, to his credit, kept a cordial friendship with her for years, but it hasn’t been a communication pipeline between the two for many years.”
Before rising to prominence among right-leaning online audiences, Candace Owens served as Turning Point USA’s communications director from 2017 to 2019.
Although she left the organization without holding another formal role, she continued to appear at TPUSA events as a guest speaker through 2024 and remained featured on the group’s website, The Post noted.
For her part, Owens instead chose to respond to the Daily Mail’s inquiry in a video that the outlet said turned out to be “even more compelling than we may have originally hoped.”
“This is what we got from Daily Mail,” said Owens as she began. “You’re right, you got me.”
WATCH:
Candace Owens rages after being snubbed from Charlie Kirk memorial speaking roster | Victoria Churchill, Daily Mail
— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) September 20, 2025
The Daily Mail asked right-wing provocateur Candace Owens on Thursday to share details of her relationship with Charlie Kirk, and whether or not she planned to… pic.twitter.com/FGlydUuvTf
“I was not invited to speak alongside President Trump, and JD Vance, on the stage with Tucker Carlson at a memorial event,” she said. “Erika is in full control … I would hope she’s in full control, but I don’t know because I’ve been hearing some stories about donors that are pushing things.”
She then added: “Charlie and I never, for a second, stopped being friends. Ever. Never happened… They can’t produce one shred of evidence to that effect.”
As for Bolling’s claims, a spokesperson for Owens said he “is flat-out lying.”
“The reason that they’re doing this is because they want us to stop investigating the death of Charlie Kirk. I am convinced that this is a full-blown fed operation,” Owens said.
The remarkable claim comes on the heels of a claim she made shortly after Kirk’s murder that she believed Israel was behind it – which led to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to very publicly deny that allegation.
In her video, Owens went on to claim that Kirk’s memorial was “being controlled by the White House,” and that “Trump is controlled by Zionists.”
“Why would I be invited by anyone in Trump’s Zionist administration, as I am speaking about the topics that I am speaking… It’s common sense they’re not going to allow me to share the stage,” Owens went on.
On the “PBD Podcast,” Bolling said the last time he saw Candace Owens in person was around 2015 or 2016.
When asked about her most recent appearance at a Turning Point USA event, he replied, “Many years.”
