Candace Owens Says She 'Cannot Be Silenced' After Daily Wire Exit

Candace Owens has declared that she "cannot be silenced," following the announcement that she has been fired from her role at the Daily Wire.

"Daily Wire and Candace Owens have ended their relationship," Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing wrote in a post shared on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday morning.

Owens reposted the statement on her own X account shortly after it was shared.

While Boreing did not elaborate on the move, it has been widely documented in the months since the Israel-Hamas war began that Owens was at loggerheads with the Daily Wire's editor emeritus Ben Shapiro over their opposing points of view on the conflict.

A source close to Owens exclusively shared with Newsweek that the conservative commentator is set to speak out on the matter as she prepares to continue her work on a platform of her own.

"Candace will be speaking soon," the source told Newsweek. "Anyone who knows Candace knows Candace has a voice that cannot be silenced."

On Friday, Owens took to her X account to share her own website link as she confirmed the news that she had parted ways with the Daily Wire.

"The rumors are true—I am finally free," she wrote, before directing her followers to her website and posting another link for those wishing to share donations via the Revv platform. "There will be many announcements in the weeks to come."

Sharing another link in a follow-up X post, Owens wrote: "This is my personal YouTube page that I will be bringing the show back to after a brief hiatus.

"Please take a moment to subscribe to this new channel. Love to all."

Newsweek has contacted representatives of Owens and the Daily Wire via email for comment.

Owens has faced criticism from a number of her fellow conservatives after speaking out against Israel amid its war with Hamas. Israel launched its latest war on Gaza after Hamas' October 7 surprise infiltration attack, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken back into the Strip as hostages. Around 100 remain unaccounted for, along with the bodies of 32 captives believed to have already died.

The subsequent assault on Gaza has killed at least 31,819 Palestinians, per data from the Strip's health ministry cited by the Associated Press. Another 435 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces and settlers in the West Bank since October 7, per Associated Press figures.

Swaths of Gaza have been razed, and the vast majority of its 2.3 million residents forced to flee their homes. Scant humanitarian aid has been delivered into the Strip despite growing international pressure on Israel to facilitate more, with the United Nations and NGOs warning that famine is imminent.

Roughly a week into the Israel-Hamas conflict, Owens fought with conservative journalist Megyn Kelly on X, wrangling over whether college students protesting for Palestinians should be "blacklisted."

In a November 6 episode of her Candace Owens Podcast titled "Am I Anti-Semitic?" Owens sat down with Jewish comedian Ami Kozak to discuss the conflict, and again drew criticism for asserting during the conversation that there are "Muslim quarters" that dictate where Muslim citizens are allowed to live in Jerusalem.

"I grew up in my grandparents' house, my grandfather grew up in a segregated South, and so when I'm walking through Jerusalem, and you see, and they say, 'These are the Muslim quarters, this is where the Muslims are allowed to live,' that doesn't feel like a bastion of freedom to me," Owens said during her show.

Kozak countered Owens' statement by explaining that while there are ethnic communities within the city of Jerusalem, there are no specific quarters that "legally" dictate where Muslim citizens can live. Jerusalem's Old City has four quarters—Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Armenian—and each neighborhood represents the ethnic group of most of the people who live there, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.

In November, a clip emerged on social media showing Shapiro, who is Jewish, answering questions in front of a crowd. He described Owens' commentary on the conflict in Gaza as "disgraceful."

"The question is about Candace Owens," Shapiro said in the video posted to X by user @LoomerLs. "I think her behavior during this has been disgraceful, without a doubt."

Shapiro's answer was met with applause from the audience, followed by his acknowledgment that Owens "still works at my company."

"I think that her faux sophistication on these particular issues has been ridiculous," Shapiro added. "Everybody can see the moves that she's making and the things that she's saying, and I find them disreputable."

Owens addressed the comments during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that went live on X days later.

When Carlson asked Owens if she was able to contextualize Shapiro's comments, she responded: "There isn't much of a background. I saw the video when everybody else saw it, when I woke up. Nobody warned me about it.

"It looks like maybe he didn't know he was being recorded. It looks it was some sort of a private event. I got no clarity on the issue that he was particularly speaking on. And in what was said, I can't respond to it beyond what he's saying, because it's just ad hominem attacks."

"So I can't respond to it on a level of intellect, because there's nothing that he has expressed, at least in that short clip, that he fundamentally disagrees with in terms of what I said," she continued. "But I will say that I'm not gonna respond with [the] same ad hominem attacks. I don't think it helps further the discussion.

"If that was me that was caught on a video saying that about colleagues that I work with, I would be embarrassed. So I think the video speaks more to Ben's character than it speaks to mine."

When asked if Shapiro had contacted her to apologize or explain, Owens told Carlson: "No, nothing. I haven't heard a single word. It just was sort of something that he said."

Owens added that she and Shapiro "have many disagreements, so I don't think that that's particularly something that's interesting. We disagreed on the COVID vaccine, we disagree on Ukraine and Russia... Virtually every stance has been the opposite of mine on every issue over the last five years, so I don't think that that's particularly remarkable."

"I am totally open to people having a difference in opinion," she added. "I would hope that amongst colleagues that it would always be civil disagreement. I would never at a private event stand on a table and talk badly about Ben."

On Thursday, Owens spoke out on X after the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) shared a link to a Media Matters article. An accompanying caption read: "White supremacist & Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes is praising Candace Owens' vitriolic antisemitism. It's hardly surprising, but it does set off alarm bells: When bigoted people come together to push an antisemitic agenda, it adds fuel to the fire of hate."

Responding, Owens wrote: "I do not know Nick Fuentes, but you already know that. What I do know is that everyone can see what you guys are doing to me. Your pattern is well established and the world is waking up to it. My crime is having stood up for myself against your network of smears."

"My crime, is that I do not believe that American taxpayers should have to pay for Israel's wars or the wars of any other country," Owens continued. "I will not change my mind. So the question is what will you do to me next? The world is watching."

Update 3/22/24, 12:00 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional background information.