Laura Loomer, Candace Owens, Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

Podcast Wars: “Worthless” Candace Owens, “wicked and evil” Tucker Carlson, and “foreign spy” Ben Shapiro

This week's right-wing podcaster infighting

Written by Noah VanDowe & Ben Van Bloem

Published

Welcome to Media Matters’ regular debrief on the Podcast Wars. This week, Candace Owens and her continued “investigation” into Charlie Kirk’s assassination remained central in a number of vicious, personal exchanges between right-wing hosts, with Tucker Carlson also sharing the spotlight.

  • Candace Owens’ conspiracy theories continue to fuel outrage and disdain

    • Candace Owens called Erika Kirk “conniving,” criticizing her for pushing a “federal slop narrative” about her husband’s assassination instead of being “at home taking care of her kids.”
    • Streamer Zack Hoyt, known online as Asmongold, called Owens “worthless” and a “disgusting, filthy fucking stupid bitch liar” who “represents the worst inclinations of the dumbest people.” Hoyt argued Owens “should have her reputation completely destroyed, if not put in jail or fined for millions of dollars.”
    • White nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes said Owens’ “investigation” into Charlie Kirk’s murder is “totally irresponsible and dishonest” and has “basically become a grift,” adding that “her attacks on Erika Kirk are appalling.” Fuentes continued, “She deputizes her millions of followers to go out there and harass anybody and everybody whether they're guilty or not.”
    • Former Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing called Owens “the queen of the grift industrial project” and “a woman who's made millions of dollars exploiting the assassination of her so-called friend.” Boreing lamented that Owens “lies for fame and for money and also to satisfy her deep grudges and to cause other people pain.”

  • Tucker Carlson gets called an “evil person” who “wants Republicans to lose”

    • Nick Fuentes called Tucker Carlson a “disturbing figure” and a “deeply wicked and evil person.” Fuentes complained, “His whole show is about conspiracy theories … and yet he never says anything about Peter Thiel or JD Vance,” adding, “Tucker's whole show is, oh, all this country does is make Flock cameras and missiles. Really? Your best friend is Peter Thiel, you fucking faggot.”
    • Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro accused Carlson of “overtly campaigning for Senate Democrats in places like Maine and Michigan.” Arguing Carlson “wants Republicans to lose,” Shapiro further suggested that he and the “horseshoe right” seek to “destroy the party and take over the fragments of it.”  

  • Commentators continue to tear each other apart over Israel and Iran

    • Former Infowars host Alex Jones lashed out at Jewish right-wing media figures including “Larry Loomer,” (his name for Laura Loomer), Ben Shapiro, and Mark Levin, calling them “Israeli operatives.” “We’re on the Qatar payroll when your puppet, Trump, is literally getting billions from them?” Jones complained, continuing, “The truth is D.C. is a giant vending machine. Larry Loomer’s just a microcosm of it. Here, 100 bucks, eat dog food.”
    • Tucker Carlson slammed CBS Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss as a “professional racial grievance monger, whose entire public career is devoted to protecting the interests of one group, a group she describes as, quote, my people.”
    • Podcaster Dave Smith declared that he has long “hated Ben Shapiro’s guts,” arguing he is “in effect a foreign spy” for Israel. Smith claimed Shapiro has “always pretended to care about all these other issues, but really what he cares about is Israel.”
    • Broadcaster Piers Morgan opened his Monday show by mocking Shapiro and Levin as “the [Iran] war’s biggest cheerleaders.”