After being embraced by right-wing pundits for her often controversial ideology, Candace
Owens became a conservative icon practically overnight. Since then, she's become a Fox
News regular, a diehard Trump supporter, and even a congressional witness. But who is she
- really? This is the untold truth of Candace Owens.
Candace Owens co-founded the marketing agency Degree180 in 2015, where her political posts
were very different from the Owens people know today. For example, she wrote about what
she called the "crazy antics" of the conservative Tea Party, adding that she expected that faction
to eventually die off. But in 2016, her political transformation began with her next business
venture, a site called Social Autopsy - that would serve as a searchable database to expose
so-called "cyberbullies and trolls."
Many felt this was an invasion of privacy and would lead to rampant doxing. In retaliation,
people began to dox Owens herself, making information such as her address and contact
information available to the public. At the time, Owens was also reported to have received
threatening emails and texts, many of them of a racist nature.
This incident led to Owens crossing paths with alt-right figures such as Mike Cernovich.
Cernovich later told NBC News:
"I reached out to offer some moral support, told her to keep her head up and not let the
hate get her down."
And that's all it took.
"I became a conservative overnight. I realized that liberals were actually the racists. Liberals
were actually the trolls."
In 2018, rapper Kanye West sparked significant controversy when he tweeted:
"I love the way Candace Owens thinks."
During Turning Point USA's Young Black Leadership Summit later that year, Owens debuted a line
of merch clothing for her so-called Blexit movement - which she claimed West had designed.
Owens said:
"Blexit is a renaissance and I am blessed to say that this logo, these colors, were
created by my dear friend and fellow superhero Kanye West."
However, West denied all involvement with the merchandise. He tweeted:
"I introduced Candace to the person who made the logo and they didn't want their name on
it so she used mine. I never wanted any association with Blexit. I have nothing to do with it."
Owens publicly apologized to West on her official Blexit blog, but by then it was too late.
West tweeted:
"My eyes are now wide open and now realize I've been used to spread messages I don't
believe in. I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative!"
Let's just say that didn't last long, either.
These days, a huge part of being a popular right-wing personality is to engage in climate
change denial. And sure enough, on a 2018 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Candace
Owens and Joe Rogan got into a heated argument over this particular issue. Despite Rogan
providing Owens detailed evidence and statements from scientific journals on how humans are
exacerbating climate change, Owens refused to change her mind on the subject.
Her reason for not believing in climate change was apparently due to the way it is presented
to the public by liberal politicians. When Rogan showed her a survey reported by ScientificAmerican.com,
Owens was quick to criticize the publication itself.
"Yeah, dot com, though. That means it's making money. I don't trust that. If it was a dot
org, I would probably take that, but this is just a random website."
After Rogan explained that it wasn't just a random website, Owens doubled down on her
assertion. She went on to explain that she can't bring herself to believe the consensus
of the scientific community, because global warming has become so politicized. Rogan agreed,
but made the point that's why she feels the need to push back on scientific data.
"It's an ideological right-wing point, is that global warming isn't real."
"Right."
"I think that I have a right to say I don't believe in something that I also I don't know."
On March 15th 2019, a 28-year-old shooter attacked two Christchurch mosques in New Zealand,
killing 51 Muslim worshippers and injuring dozens more. In his 74-page manifesto, the
shooter wrote that it was Candace Owens who had radicalized him into his beliefs. He wrote:
"Each time she spoke I was stunned by her insights and her own views helped push me
further and further into the belief of violence over meekness. Though I will have to disavow
some of her beliefs, the extreme actions she calls for me are too much, even for my tastes."
However, it remains unclear if he was being truthful there, as, according to The Atlantic,
certain aspects of the manifesto were written as an elaborate attempt at trolling, written
specifically to prey on the mainstream media's worst tendencies.
Owens took to Twitter to deny any link between her and the shooter posting a cry-laughing
emoji and the tweet:
"LOL! FACT: I've never created any content espousing my views on the 2nd Amendment or
Islam. The Left pretending I inspired a mosque massacre in New Zealand because I believe
black America can do it without government hand-outs is the reachiest reach of all reaches!
LOL!"
In October 2018, sixteen pipe bombs were mailed to top Democrats and Trump critics, including
former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, Robert
DeNiro, George Soros, and former Attorney General Eric Holder. Although all of the packages
were intercepted by law enforcement, the situation caused a nationwide panic.
Before a suspect or an arrest was made in the case, Candace Owens joined in with fellow
right-wing pundits to claim that this was a hoax engineered by Democrats to damage the
GOP in the midterm election. In a now-deleted tweet, Owens wrote:
"I'm going to go ahead and state that there is a 0% chance that these 'suspicious packages'
were sent out by conservatives. The only thing 'suspicious' about these packages is their
timing. Caravans, fake bomb threats - these leftists are going ALL OUT for midterms."
On October 26th, Trump supporter Cesar Sayoc was arrested outside an auto parts store while
wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat. The van Sayoc lived in was covered in "pro-Trump
stickers," and printouts that condemned liberals and the news media - including one image of
Hillary Clinton under red crosshairs. Owens never addressed the issue again.
On April 9th 2019, Owens was invited to testify before a House Judiciary Committee hearing
on the subject of hate crimes and the rise of white nationalism. Instead of speaking
on that subject, however, Owens instead denied that the hearing what about white nationalism
at all, and turned to a number of conservative talking points.
"It's about fear mongering, power, and control. It's a preview of a Democrat 2020 election
strategy, same as the Democrat 2016 election strategy."
She did, however, eventually land on the topic of white nationalism - and insisted that the
statistics on that issue were being inflated by the widening definition of the term "hate
crimes."
Owens also claimed that Democrats were targeting social media companies to suppress and censor
dissenting viewpoints. During the hearing, YouTube was forced to disable comments on
their livestream after being flooded with racist and anti-Semitic comments. A representative
for the streaming giant told CNN:
"Hate speech has no place on YouTube."
Many people may vehemently disagree with practically everything Candace Owens says, but one family
that truly loves her is the Trump family. Mostly notably, President Donald Trump himself.
In May 2018, the President tweeted:
"Candace Owens of Turning Point USA is having a big impact on politics in our country. She
represents an ever expanding group of very smart "thinkers," and it is wonderful to watch
and hear the dialogue going on… so good for our country!"
Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. let NBC News know that Owens might as well be a regular at Trump
family functions. He explained:
"Everybody in our immediate family has met Candace on multiple occasions, and deeply
appreciates what she has done to bridge the polarizing delta left by leftist politicians
and their media cohorts, who wish to see this country divided."
And after Owens' testimony before Congress, the eldest Trump child tweeted out his support.
He wrote:
"Great to see someone call out the Dems on their purposeful manipulation of facts for
their narrative. Since the media runs with anything they say and is the marketing wing
of the DNC they aren't used to getting called out for the repeated BS."
In 2020, to combat the spread of COVID-19, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued
her "Stay Home, Stay Safe" executive order. Upset at being ordered to stay home as the
pandemic raged on, a number of armed protestors stormed the Michigan State Capitol. Candace
Owens took the opportunity to comment on the situation - and make a few ideological points
in the process. In a now-deleted tweet, she wrote:
"Apparently [Whitmer] believes she is a duly elected dictator of a socialist country. The
people of Michigan need to stand up to her. Open your businesses. Go to work. The police
think she's crazy too. They are not going to arrest 10,000,000 people for going to work."
Twitter then briefly suspended Owens, claiming her tweet violated its platform guidelines.
Naturally, Owens doubled down. She told the Washington Examiner:
"I unequivocally stand by every single word of my tweet. [...] The only person breaking
any laws is governor-turned-dictator Gretchen Whitmer, who is impoverishing millions, ignoring
the votes of her state legislature, and as a result, rolling over the constitutionally
protected rights of Michigan citizens."
As of July 2020, Michigan has the eighth highest coronavirus death rate in the United States.
In 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man, was allegedly gunned down during a jog after
getting into a struggle with father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael. The McMichaels
were reported to have pursued Arbery in Travis' truck, because they believed he was a suspect
in a string of burglaries. A third man, William Bryan Jr., recorded the confrontation that
ended in Arbery's death on video. At it stands, all three men are facing charges in Arbery's
death. What was Owens' take on the situation? She later tweeted:
"Ahmaud Arbery was caught on camera breaking into an unfinished property that was owned
by Larry English. His mother has confirmed it is him in the video. Please stop with the
'just a jogger' bulls--t narrative. Avid joggers don't wear khaki shorts and stop to break
into homes."
While Arbery is on surveillance camera viewing the construction site, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
reports that he was on the property for "less than five minutes" and "did not appear to
take anything." On top of that, a Glynn County Police Lieutenant told CNN that the last known
burglary in the area had occurred two months earlier.
At the preliminary hearing in the Arbery case that took place a month after Owens' tweet,
Special Agent Richard Dial of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation testified under oath
that Travis McMichael used a racial slur while standing over Arbery's body. Even months after
this came to light, Owens apparently refused to delete her original tweet.
In the wake of George Floyd's death while in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department,
Candance Owens once again leapt into a controversial stance in a video she posted online, entitled:
"Confession: #GeorgeFloyd is neither a martyr or a hero. But I hope his family gets justice."
Although Owens stated that the family of George Floyd deserves justice for the way that he
died, that concession quickly lead to the real theme of her argument. She explained:
"The fact that [Floyd] has been held up as a martyr sickens me. Was he really going to
change things around? It's just not true."
Owens then blasted Floyd's past criminal history, including incidents unrelated to the arrest
that lead to his death. After receiving criticism for comments, Owens responded:
"I've had time to reflect on my video about #GeorgeFloyd and you guys were right - I was
very wrong. He went to prison nine times, not seven. I missed two earlier convictions
for theft and drugs."
Not content to leave things there, Owens next set up a GoFundMe campaign for an Alabama
bar owner who lost business after calling Black Lives Matter protesters "idiots" and
George Floyd a "thug" in leaked text messages. The campaign raised $205,000 before being
suspended. According to a screenshot shared by Owens, GoFundMe took down her fundraiser
for violating a rule prohibiting user content that the organization deems to be in support
of hate, violence, harassment, bullying, discrimination, terrorism, or intolerance of any kind.
More specifically, in a statement released by GoFundMe, the company explained that Owens'
fundraiser had been taken down because of:
"...A repeated pattern of inflammatory statements that spread hate, discrimination, intolerance,
and falsehoods against the black community at a time of profound national crisis."
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