The far-right commentator Candace Owens left the rightwing Daily Wire website amid tensions over her alleged antisemitism and opposition to US funding of Israel’s war in Gaza.
“Daily Wire and Candace Owens have ended their relationship,” said Jeremy Boreing, co-founder of the site with the rightwing commentator Ben Shapiro, who has clashed with Owens and is a strong supporter of Israel and its actions.
In her own post, Owens, who hosted a commentary show for the site, said: “The rumors are true – I am finally free.”
Owens said she would bring her show to YouTube “after a brief hiatus”.
Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing more than 1,100 and taking hostages. Israel’s air and ground onslaught in response has killed more than 30,000 and pushed Gaza to the brink of famine.
Owens has criticised US support for Israel but also mused about “political Jews” and a “very small ring of specific people who are using the fact that they are Jewish to shield themselves from any criticism”, remarks Shapiro called “absolutely disgraceful”.
On Monday, on social media, Owens liked a post in which a user asked Shmuley Boteach, a well-known rabbi, if he was “drunk on Christian blood again”.
Owens subsequently came under fire from the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL, which campaigns against antisemitism, posted a report by the progressive watchdog Media Matters about remarks in which Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier and white supremacist, praised Owens for mounting “a full-fledged war against the Jews”.
Fuentes, the ADL said, “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.”
Owens said: “I do not know Nick Fuentes … 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.”
She also said she was being attacked because she did not believe “that American taxpayers should have to pay for Israel’s wars or the wars of any other country”.