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Candace Owens said her colleague and fellow right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro should be “ashamed” by the online feud between the two, accusing him of making “ad hominem” attacks on her.
Ms Owens, known for her outspoken views on issues such as the Covid vaccine and the Black Lives Matter movement, said Mr Shapiro had “thrown her under a bus” and also accused him of being “unprofessional” and ” “to be emotionally unhinged”.
This comes after a video posted online showed Mr. Shapiro speaking at a seemingly private event where he called Ms. Owens’ “feigned sophistication” on certain topics “disgraceful” and “ridiculous.”
The two both work together for the right-wing news outlet The Daily Wire. While Mr. Shapiro did not refer to a specific thing that Ms. Owens said or did in the video, his comments followed several posts she had made on X.
“No government has the right to ever commit genocide. There is no justification for genocide. I can’t believe this even needs to be said or is even remotely controversial,” she wrote on November 3rd.
Her comments were taken as a reference to the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel in the Middle East – although Ms Owens did not specifically mention it.
In conversation with Tucker Carlson for his series “Tucker On
“I can’t respond to it on an intellectual level because there’s nothing he expressed in it, at least not in that short clip, that he would fundamentally disagree with in light of what I said,” she said.
“I have to say that I will not respond with the same ad hominem attack – I don’t think that will help the further discussion – even if it were me who was caught on video saying this about colleagues , who I work with, then I would be embarrassed.
“So I think the video suits Ben’s character more than it suits me.”
Ms. Owens added that she had not been contacted by Mr. Shapiro — the co-founder of the Daily Wire in 2015 — to discuss their differences.
“Ben and I have a lot of disagreements, so I don’t think it’s anything special. He has taken virtually every stance that has been the opposite of mine on every issue over the last five years. So I don’t think it’s particularly noteworthy,” she said.
“I am completely open to people who have a different opinion. I would hope that there would always be civil disagreements between colleagues and that I would never stand at a table at a private event and speak ill of Ben.”
Ms. Owens continued to give the Daily Wire “great credit” for allowing different opinions on the network, but added, “I hope that it stays respectful and that you don’t pressure your colleagues, so to speak.”
The feud continued Wednesday night after Mr. Shapiro responded to another post by Ms. Owens on X in which she quoted a Bible verse and wrote: “You cannot serve both God and money.”
“Candace, if you feel that taking money from The Daily Wire is somehow between you and God, then by all means stop,” Mr. Shapiro wrote.
Ms Owens responded: “You have been behaving unprofessionally and emotionally unhinged for weeks. And we all had to sit back and let it happen and all tried to be extremely understanding of your raw emotions.
“But you cross a certain line when you pick up the Scriptures and read into them. I won’t tolerate it.”