Charlie Kirk’s widow is due to meet one-on-one with friend-turned-foe Candace Owens after the controversial podcaster spent weeks stoking conspiracy theories about the far-right activist’s death.
The confrontation appears aimed at putting to rest a weeks-long feud that has dominated right-wing circles since Kirk was killed in September, leaving his widow, Erika Kirk, to take over as CEO of his conservative organization, Turning Point USA.
“Candace Owens and I are meeting for a private, in-person discussion on Monday, December 15,” Erika Kirk announced in an X post late Sunday night. “[We] have agreed that public discussions, livestreams, and tweets are on hold until after this meeting. I look forward to a productive conversation.”
Owens herself was quick to confirm the engagement. “I am very much looking forward to this discussion,” she wrote in a retweet of Kirk’s post.
The announcement may have disappointed many of those following the saga who were hoping for a livestreamed confrontation.
“After TPUSA challenged Candace Owens to a live-streamed showdown over her Charlie Kirk theories on Monday, Erika Kirk changes course and says it’ll be a private meeting,” noted Will Sommer, a journalist with The Bulwark who has been closely following the feud.
The sit-down comes after Owens publicly bashed Erika Kirk last week, questioning her ability to lead her late husband’s political organization.
“I hate to say this…but this is why there are many people who do not believe that women are equipped to lead companies,” Owens said, lamenting what she described as Kirk’s “emotional” response to conspiracy theories about her husband’s death.
“You don’t just get to be widowed into chairman and CEO,” she said.
Owens, once a close friend of Charlie Kirk, has seized on his assassination to peddle a series of conspiracy theories. Despite a 22-year-old Utah man, Tyler Robinson, being charged with Kirk’s murder, Owens has insisted the far-right activist was “betrayed” and suggested his killing was an inside job.
She has used her podcast to fuel rampant speculation about the circumstances of his death, at one point suggesting he was murdered over his waning support for Israel.
Most controversially, Owens has suggested Turning Point USA played a role in his killing, claiming his chief of staff, Mikey McCoy, was not only aware of plans to murder him ahead of time, but also later happy he’d died because he’d been told he would be the “next Charlie.”
Owens has perhaps been less forthcoming on the subject of who exactly she believes may have carried out the killing, making only vague references to a “federal conspiracy” and possible Israeli involvement.
Federal prosecutors in Utah have charged Robinson with Kirk’s murder, with pretrial hearings currently underway.
