War at the Daily Wire: Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro’s Public Feud

The conservative media landscape has been rocked by a high-profile war of words between Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro and Blexit founder Candace Owens. The two right-wing icons have been publicly feuding over the conflict between Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas, in which noncombatants have become involved largely due to Hamas’ placement of personnel and weapons in places where civilians reside.

Owens is a black American Christian, and Shapiro is an orthodox Jew who appears to support Israel without condition. The controversy began with Owens’ remark posted to X on November 3, in which she appeared to refer to Israel’s bombing in Gaza as “genocide.” In posts on X, the two have engaged in a rather heated war of words

“No government anywhere has a right to commit a genocide, ever,” Owens posted. “There is no justification for a genocide. I can’t believe this even needs to be said or is even considered the least bit controversial to state.”

Later that day, she doubled down in an exchange with podcast host Dave Rubin. Rubin pointed out that a genocide of the Jews is in Hamas’ charter.

Owens replied: “In short—If the blanket statement that genocide is wrong upsets you in any way, then you need to check yourself. I said exactly what I meant and I won’t be backing down or apologizing or further clarifying this statement.”

She then implied that she was not necessarily speaking about Israel in her initial tweet: “What’s amazing about this is that I did not name any country in this tweet. I simply stated that genocide is wrong—ALWAYS. This is not a controversial stance.”

Ben Shapiro entered the fray when a video of him addressing Owens’ remarks to a private gathering was posted to X in the early hours Tuesday.

“She still works for my company,” Shapiro said. “And I think she’s been absolutely disgraceful. I think that her faux sophistication on these particular issues has been ridiculous.”

“Everybody can see the moves that she’s making and the things that she’s saying and I find it disreputable.”

The feud then took a scriptural turn.

Owens responded to Shapiro by quoting from the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”

And then she threw in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

She subsequently posted “Christ is King,” to which Shapiro responded: “Candace, if you feel that taking money from The Daily Wire somehow comes between you and God, by all means quit.”

Owens accused Shapiro of unprofessionalism since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

“You have been acting unprofessional and emotionally unhinged for weeks now. And we have all had to sit back and allow it and have all tried to exercise exceeding understanding for your raw emotion,” Owens charged. “But you cross a certain line when you come for scripture and read yourself into it. I will not tolerate it.”

Conservative media have been choosing sides, with Owens’ former colleague at Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, commenting: “I am genuinely confused why asking questions and quoting Bible verses about peace warrants a call to resign from Dailywire. There should be more room in the conservative movement for disagreement. We can do better than this.”

But perhaps no other conservative personality moves the needle like former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Carlson hosted Owens on his show on X.

Asked by Carlson if she and Shapiro had spoken at all, Owens said, “I haven’t heard a single word.”

And that’s perhaps the single biggest takeaway from Carlson’s interview — that Owens and Shapiro have not spoken together about the conflict. Owens is not listing pro-Hamas talking points, and Shapiro is not saying that Israel has blanket authority to commit war crimes. It’s more like a disagreement in a family in which one sibling takes a stance that another disagrees with and those siblings war for years over something that, ultimately, is small in the grand scheme of things.

The two commentators need to share a contentious Thanksgiving dinner and clear the air.