Candace Owens: "I never said Israel killed Charlie Kirk"

Candace Owens has been all over the place when it comes to talking about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the guy who founded Turning Point USA. She keeps dropping these hints that make it sound like Israel or some Jewish groups could be involved, but every time people call her out, she swears up and down that she's never actually accused them. It's this back-and-forth that's got everyone accusing her of being evasive or even gaslighting her audience.

Meanwhile, the whole thing has stirred up a ton of controversy, with antisemitism charges flying around and conservatives splitting into camps.

Charlie and Owens used to work together, but they had a falling out before possibly patching things up. Since his death, Owens has been digging into it, sharing what she says are text messages and pointing fingers in subtle ways. One big thing she keeps bringing up is how Kirk was supposedly under a lot of pressure from Jewish donors and rabbis. She claims that just a couple of days before he died, Kirk told some Turning Point USA folks, donors, and a rabbi that he had no choice but to drop his support for Israel because of how they were acting.

And then she says he was planning to team up with her again on stage and step away from those pro-Israel ties.

It all adds up to this implied motive: if Kirk was turning his back on Israel, maybe that's why he ended up dead. But she doesn't say it outright.She's also shared these leaked texts that supposedly show Kirk venting about those pressures, which muddies the water on the official story but doesn't prove anything about Israel.

Owens uses stuff like this to argue that Kirk wasn't as locked-in pro-Israel as people thought.

Then there's how she talks about the reactions from Israeli leaders. She's questioned why Benjamin Netanyahu even bothered to make a public statement about Kirk's death, saying it feels like an over-the-top response full of lies from Israel supporters.

She's gone as far as saying, "The only thing that makes Israel look guilty is how they're behaving right now," but then she insists she's not accusing them.

She even pulls in history, like showing clips where Kirk talks about AIPAC and how JFK got assassinated after going against a similar group. It's like she's drawing this line without crossing it, saying it's risky to criticize pro-Israel lobbies, but again, "I never said Israel did it." Things get weirder when she floats these out-there ideas, like maybe a "Tunnel Jew" or some underground killer popped up to take him out.

She's claimed multiple people told her Kirk was scared Israel might come after him the day before he died, and some have messages to back it up. She expands it to include the U.S. government, Kash Patel, and even Turning Point USA in some kind of cover-up, hinting the FBI is hiding Israel's role.

People like Ian Miles Cheong have called her out, saying her theories are totally unhinged, especially linking Kirk's supposed shift to Catholicism or pro-Palestinian views to an Israeli plot.

But despite all these hints, Owens keeps denying she ever pointed the finger directly. She'll say things like, "I never speculated that any other country or Israelis were involved," and blames critics for twisting her words to shut down her investigation.

She says the only "implication" comes from how Zionists are lying and overreacting.

Folks like Nathan Livingstone see this as straight-up gaslighting: she denies making direct claims while pushing the story forward not so subtly.

The ADL has slammed her for spreading antisemitic and anti-Israel conspiracies.

This has split people big time: Critics like Alexander Augustine say she's forcing an "Israeli angle" into theories that have already been shot down. Patrick Bet-David wants hard evidence, calling unproven claims just made-up stuff. Others in the middle say she doesn't have any proof, but that there are holes in the official story.

Outlets like The Guardian and others are covering it as a wave of far-right conspiracies, with Owens' hints right in the middle.

As the probe into Kirk's death goes on, Owens' habit of suggesting Israeli involvement and then denying it is highlighting all sorts of tensions in conservative circles about free speech, antisemitism, and who's loyal to what. As to why her audience sticks with her when she peddles a bizarre mix of conspiracy theories and Israeli hatred and antisemitism, nobody knows.