Candace Owens Responds After Not Being Invited to Speak at Kirk Memorial

Conservative commentator Candace Owens is pushing back after being left off the list of speakers at Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s memorial service Sunday, an event that featured President Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, and Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk.

The UK’s Daily Mail asked Owens whether she had been invited to take part in the high-profile service. Owens, who once worked closely with Kirk during her time as Turning Point USA’s communications director, used the inquiry as an opportunity to set the record straight — and to issue fiery accusations of her own.

“I was not invited to speak alongside President Trump, and JD Vance, on the stage with Tucker Carlson at a memorial event,” Owens said in a video response. “Erika is in full control … I would hope she’s in full control, but I don’t know because I’ve been hearing some stories about donors that are pushing things.”

The remarks came amid media speculation that Kirk had distanced himself from Owens in recent years. The New York Post quoted a TPUSA advisory board member claiming Kirk cooled on Owens “after her views became too extreme.” Former Fox News and Newsmax host Eric Bolling echoed that sentiment on Patrick Bet-David’s PBD Podcast, recalling that while Kirk and Owens were once “tight,” their relationship unraveled as “her theories got just a little bit too down the rabbit holes.”

Bolling, who has held multiple roles with TPUSA since 2015, also asserted that Owens does not have a relationship with Erika Kirk. “It was too extreme for [TPUSA’s] taste,” Bolling said. “Charlie, to his credit, kept a cordial friendship with her for years, but it hasn’t been a communication pipeline between the two for many years.”

Owens flatly rejected those claims. “Charlie and I never, for a second, stopped being friends. Ever. Never happened… They can’t produce one shred of evidence to that effect,” she insisted, adding that Bolling “is flat-out lying.”

Owens went further, suggesting that efforts to sideline her are tied to her own controversial views about Kirk’s assassination. “The reason that they’re doing this is because they want us to stop investigating the death of Charlie Kirk. I am convinced that this is a full-blown fed operation,” she said.

Her comments follow earlier claims, widely criticized, in which she speculated that Israel was behind Kirk’s death — a statement that prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly deny the allegation.

In her new video, Owens escalated further, accusing the White House of controlling Kirk’s memorial service and suggesting President Trump is being manipulated. “Why would I be invited by anyone in Trump’s Zionist administration, as I am speaking about the topics that I am speaking… It’s common sense they’re not going to allow me to share the stage,” she said.

Owens’ absence from the memorial underscores the widening rift between her and much of the mainstream conservative movement, even as she continues to command an audience online.