Hours after video of Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk being harassed by an Antifa mob at a Philadelphia restaurant went viral, a left-wing radio host suggested on Fox News that the entire incident might have been staged.

“I don’t support this kind of protesting,” progressive commentator Christopher Hahn told Laura Ingraham, but he couldn’t leave it at that. “I was very dubious on this protest,” he said. Hahn continued, “I don’t know how these people found Charlie Kirk and Ms. Owens, Candace Owens, in Philadelphia. I’m suspicious of this, whether this is real or not. I’m not saying I know for sure, I don’t. But it’s kind of weird to me.”

By his own admission, Hahn had nothing to back this up but his speculation was enough for Newsweek to publish a story titled “Was Antifa Restaurant Confrontation Planned by Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens? Pundit Asks.” Granted, Newsweek is mostly garbage these days but even the Washington Post included Hahn’s comments in a story about yesterday’s events:

Chris Hahn, a former aide to Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democratic radio host told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that he was suspicious about what sparked the protest…

But Owens told The Post on Tuesday “we didn’t manufacture” the protest.

She said she and Kirk had been to the restaurant before, showed up when it opened Monday and noticed people with antifa decals sitting at a nearby table. But those people didn’t interact with Kirk and Owens for nearly 20 minutes, she said.

“They came there. They saw us, they put out their bat signals or whatever,” she said. “And a few minutes later, 20 people show up.”

In an email to The Post, Kirk said “The accusation we staged a protest against ourselves is hard to even address seriously.”

Granted this comes near the end of the Post story but shouldn’t the author be asking Hahn to back up his unsubstantiated claim rather than pressing Owens and Kirk to defend themselves? The arguments spilled onto Twitter where Owens blasted Hahn for making things up:

.@ChristopherHahn should be ashamed of himself for insinuating we coordinated WITH ANTIFA to harass us.
For the record, 4 of them were eating at the same restaurant as us. They said nothing and TEXTED their gang members to show up. Once they had back up, they started shouting. https://t.co/67tY32Oep6

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) August 7, 2018

But Hahn isn’t letting this go:

Convienient…. did you follow them in or did they follow you…

— Chris Hahn (@ChristopherHahn) August 7, 2018

This is such a perfect example of the Democrat party today for all to see. @ChristopherHahn is actively spinning a conspiracy theory for a TERRORIST organization, rather than defending conservative Americans and/or the @PhillyPolice force.

The Democrats are indeed INSANE. https://t.co/JJqGPRDJHc

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) August 7, 2018

Indeed, Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” is the handbook for Democrat Party.
One of the rules is to accuse the other side of what you are doing. @ChristopherHahn is accusing ME of colluding with racist ANTIFA because his party is the one that does it.

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) August 7, 2018

Owens and Hahn resumed the argument on Brian Kilmeade’s radio show today. Hahn suggested that liberals didn’t know who Owens was and therefore it seemed odd to him that they would recognize her in a restaurant. Owens defended herself by saying, “Antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters show up at every single scheduled event that Charlie Kirk and I have on campus.” She continued, “Antifa is very familiar with Turning Point USA.”

Eventually, Hahn admitted that picking a fight with Owens on Twitter was good for his profile since she had a lot more followers than he did. But he continued to suggest her story didn’t make sense until the very end of the exchange when he said he believed it. Video of the Kilmeade interview isn’t embeddable yet but you can view it here. Here’s Hahn’s initial statement on Laura Ingraham’s show.

https://youtu.be/xQ4HgCM8SUo?t=23m29s