Candace Owens' spiral is a warning to my fellow Republicans | Opinion

I am loath to give any exposure to a far-right grifter who has whipped up outrage by discussing outlandish conspiracy theories, but Candace Owens continues to cross lines, gain followers and curry favor with the conservative far right − and that is a problem.

So here I am.

On Nov. 22, in just one of a bevy of her unhinged, conspiratorial posts, Owens said that a "high-ranking employee of the French Government" contacted her and claimed that the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife, Brigitte Macron − Owens refers to them as "the Macrons" − paid to have her assassinated.

For the past year, Owens has been claiming that the French first lady was born a man, prompting the Macrons to file a defamation lawsuit against her.

Owens also said in the post that the French were somehow involved in conservative activist Charlie Kirk's assassination. Kirk was fatally shot Sept. 10, and Owens has been posting rants and conspiracy theories about his death since that day.

It is America, and Owens is free to speak her mind and earn a living via her grift, but the conservative right should not support her. She is spreading allegations untethered from reality, has been openly antisemitic and leaves a trail of legal wreckage in her wake.

The right should condemn her, memory-hole her and remain focused on how the Republican Party can institute policies that really help the American people.

Candace Owens has lost her way on the journey to fame

Owen's brand has been percolating online for years. Owens, a Black woman, first developed an audience when she began speaking out against the Black Lives Matter movement. After she briefly associated with Turning Point USA and Kirk, she had her own show at The Daily Wire, a prominent conservative brand cofounded by author and commentator Ben Shapiro.

But Owens began making antisemitic remarks on that show, and she and The Daily Wire parted ways in 2024. This seemed to spark increasingly erratic behavior, and her antics ratcheted up a notch.

She descended into madness with her Macron obsession − but her followers ate it up. The first episode of her "Becoming Brigitte" YouTube series has nearly 6 million views.

When Kirk was killed, it set Owens off more. The two were friends, though Kirk seemed to distance himself from her over the years for exactly what she is doing now ‒ sprinting down bizarre rabbit holes. Rather than honor their friendship, Owens remains compelled to exploit it.

She has done approximately 35 podcast episodes about Kirk since he was killed. According to one site's analytics, the last time Owens gained significant weekly subscribers was in February. After Kirk died, her podcast jumped to 430,000 subscribers in the week of Sept. 22.

Owens is a classic grifter, producing nothing, discovering nothing, exposing nothing in real life. She just rants online via podcasts, posts and videos. But it's paying off. She has amassed over 5.6 million subscribers on YouTube, 7.4 million followers on X and 6.5 million followers on Instagram.

What's as disturbing as Owen's grift is how many people seem to buy it − or at least, window-shop in the corners of the conspiratorial right web.

Conservatives should condemn and ignore Owens

It's important that conservatives condemn and then ignore Owens because, for all her antics, theories and lawsuits, she continues to rub shoulders with some prominent conservatives who, in turn, influence massive portions of far-right conservatives.

Owens appeared on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson's show just a few months ago. He, too, has embraced weird 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Carlson just hosted Nick Fuentes on his show − Fuentes is an antisemitic Nazi sympathizer – raising questions about whether antisemitism is growing among conservatives. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, condemned Carlson, but the Heritage Foundation, the largest conservative think tank in Washington, DC, defended him. All of this is about 5 degrees of separation, too close for me.

Conservatives have to fight back against these voices.

When Kirk was assassinated, I had hoped it would bring the right's many factions together, unite them under a burgeoning purpose: God, family, country, conservative principles. Instead, it has exposed our weakness.

I thought the conservative movement was better than this. The popularity of extreme, bizarre, outlandish figures like Owens, Fuentes and Carlson − influencers feeding off views − is concerning.

Untethered from reality, unable to display a modicum of discipline and self-respect, Owens is the worst of the online far right, not just because she is a grifting, antisemitic, blathering fool, but because she is doing it under the guise of political commentary, under the pretense of conserving something.

Owens is conserving nothing − no tenet of Republican thought or policy. She is a contrarian and a provocateur. Nothing more. She has no place in the conservative movement, and we should tell her so.

Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.