Peacemaker, or staying out of it?
Megyn Kelly is now clearing the air surrounding the ongoing feud between Turning Point USA (TPUSA) CEO Erika Kirk and conservative podcaster Candace Owens.
During yesterday’s “The Megyn Kelly Show”, Kelly disclosed that she would not publicly weigh in on the spat between Kirk and Owens because she was privately trying to bring the two together.
The controversy between the two conservative stars began after Owens, who used to be an employee of TPUSA, hinted at conspiracy theories alleging TPUSA “betrayed” its founder Charlie Kirk and openly questioned if his Sept. 10 assassination was an inside job.
The move prompted immediate backlash from Kirk who slammed the stories about her late husband’s assassination on Fox News’ “Outnumbered” Dec. 10.
“Come after me. Call me names. I do not care. Call me what you want,” Kirk said.
“Go down that rabbit hole, whatever, but when you go after my family, my Turning Point USA family, my Charlie Kirk show family, when you go after the people that I love and you are making hundreds and thousands of dollars every single episode going after the people that I love because somehow they are in on this,” she said.
“No. You know, I have to say it. I have never seen you like that. No. This is righteous anger because this is not okay. It is not healthy. This is a mind virus.”
Kelly, who was recently a headliner at a recent TPUSA campus event, said that while she rejected claims implicating TPUSA, she did not believe it was her duty to condemn Owens.
“Many of my viewers have been wondering why I haven’t said anything given my previous statements about Erika,” Kelly said.
“And the reason is that I have been working behind the scenes to try to foster a detente between them.”
Take a listen —
Earlier this week, Kirk and Owens privately met for a lengthy meeting, with both calling it “productive” in X posts — a move Kelly says she has been involved with behind the scenes.
Kelly said that Kirk had reached out weeks ago to request that she participate in and “facilitate” the meeting, which they were considering publishing.
Kelly said she agreed to help and that Owens also approved of her involvement.
“And the two of them took it from there, trying to negotiate the specifics of what they’d both be comfortable with, where, when, etc. And eventually it changed after they hit some roadblocks,” Kelly said.
“Again, that’s for someone else to tell you about if they so choose, not having anything to do with yours truly. But it’s some roadblocks in scheduling and the specifics that led them to just say, ‘Let’s do this privately, not on camera, not in a live stream, just us.’ And I thought that was a great idea, and I fully support it, and I have been in touch with both of them repeatedly.”
“Okay, so that’s what I’ve been doing. And I understand my core audience knows who I am and would never have assumed the worst about me, that I was just abandoning Erika or getting ready to pounce on Candace and insert myself into this on one side,” she added.
“I’m not getting ready to do that, and I don’t want that. I don’t think that’s God’s role for me here. I really fully believe God’s role for me here is to possibly play a role in getting this whole thing to a better place. I think I might be in a position to help construct that. Maybe, maybe not.”
Kelly concluded by adding that taking a “side” and launching attacks from her Connecticut studio would be pointless, even as she expressed her continued, strong backing of TPUSA.
“That doesn’t mean I need to sling mud at somebody who sees it differently than I do. And it especially doesn’t mean I should remove myself from a position that I think few hold where I might be able to actually help this thing go away if I can, or at least get to a better place … Not just for them,” she said.
“I don’t think this is good for anybody’s mental health, but for America, for our country and definitely for the conservative movement.”