Wednesday night, Ben Shapiro offered a sustained attack on Tucker Carlson who he described as someone who is no longer a conservative. Last night, he extended this to others including Candace Owens and Megyn Kelly. He described it as breaking the "omerta" among leading talkers on the right.
First off, I should break the omerta here, and just be clear: The notion that people in our industry are close friends—like we all take holiday breaks with each other—is generally untrue. We’re business colleagues, the same way that everybody else has business colleagues. We don’t attend other hosts’ graduations, or hang out at each others’ houses for Thanksgiving. We see each other at conferences and talk on the phone with each other and all the rest. But even if it were true that other public figures were our best friends, that does not relieve us of our duty to speak out of principle, and not cover up evil or shy away from addressing it out of friendship.
So no, Tucker Carlson, it is not an excuse to go silent on Candace’s targeting of TPUSA, or to mirror her insane line of questioning, because you “love” Candace personally. The same holds true of Megyn Kelly—a person I consider a friend—characterizing Candace as a “young mother,” and thus shying away from condemning her actions or fibbing about them. That’s simply a nonstarter. Meghan Markle is a young mother. So is Ilhan Omar, for that matter.
And when Megyn says that “my goal and my job here is to try to understand—yes, where Candace is coming from on this,” as she did this week, and says she sees no purpose in inserting herself “into this on one side,” that’s a moral and logical absurdity. There is only one moral side here: Erika’s side. The side of the widow with two children whose husband was shot live on camera in front of the whole world. Friendship with the person accusing TPUSA of a cover-up of Charlie’s murder is no excuse for cowardice...
Emotive accusations, conspiracy theories, and “just asking questions” is lazy and stupid and misleading. None of them are a substitute for truth. So when Candace Owens says, “I don’t know know, but I know,” that’s retarded, and we are all more retarded for having heard it.
Megyn Kelly responded to this on X:
.@benshapiro & @bariweiss in a joint attack on yours truly (their “friend”) tonight w/o a damn clue what has been going on behind the scenes for months. Prob should have checked w/@TPUSA & @MrsErikaKirk first. I’m embarrassed for them. https://t.co/EkRLnKgJQr
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) December 19, 2025
Kelly has been pretty defensive about this over the past few days. Her argument is that Candace is a friend and she's been doing her best behind the scenes to help broker a ceasefire between Candace and Erika Kirk. And she's taking it as a given that this was helpful and good for everyone involved.
The problem of course is that the only reason a ceasefire was necessary was because Candace was spreading BS about TPUSA and Charlie Kirk for months. She is 100% responsible for the bad feelings and even if she had turned around 180 degrees and apologized after the meeting with Erika KIrk on Monday, she was still the cause of all of it.
That alone would be reason enough to tell Candace to pound sand. But the reality is worse than that. Because Candace hasn't really apologized and hasn't done a 180. She sort of backed off her statements about not donating to TPUSA, probably because that's actionable in court, but she's still pursuing her "investigation" and still suggesting that Erika Kirk is part of some sort of secret activity, though of course she won't say what that is.
🚨Today Candace Owens claimed her show is “God’s platform” as she interviewed a guy named “Mitch,” who says he is 95% sure he saw Erika Kirk at Fort Huachuca military base in Arizona the night before Charlie Kirk’s assassination, accompanied by Brian Harpole who was in charge of… pic.twitter.com/UEU3li6N5o
— Nathan Livingstone (MilkBarTV) (@TheMilkBarTV) December 19, 2025
Is this an improvement? What is better now thanks to Megyn Kelly's efforts and her refusal to say Candace is off her rocker and spreading dumb conspiracy theories? I don't see it.
Candace also has thoughts on Ben Shapiro. Can you guess what they might be? If you said warmed over anti-Semitism, collect your prize.
Every time Ben speaks I feel more certain Israel is involved in 9/10z
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) December 19, 2025
He’s just way too invested in Charlie’s murder.
He never liked Charlie and he’s now suddenly pretending he had a duty to defend his legacy.
Ben only cares about Israel’s interests. So Israel is involved. pic.twitter.com/fQa2RuW9VJ
Ben Shapiro is way too invested? This is the only thing Candace has talked about for 3 months. That is some wild projection on her part.
Anyway, here's the full speech Shapiro gave last night. Whatever you want to label what is happening on the right in the past few months, it's clearly not over yet.
Here is Ben Shapiro's full speech at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest where he slams Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, Steve Bannon, Alex Jones, and criticizes his friend Megyn Kelly.
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) December 19, 2025
Whether you agree with him or not, it's a must-watch...especially considering that… pic.twitter.com/fIHj4hxiL9
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