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Daily Wire host: Candace Owens was fired over ‘Christ is King’ being received as ‘deeply antisemitic’

Andrew Klavan said that the firing was a result of the repeated use of 'Christ is King.'
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Stephen
Kokx
Stephen Kokx

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(LifeSiteNews) — Daily Wire host Andrew Klavan admitted that Candace Owens’ firing from the company in March was the result of her repeated use of the phrase “Christ is King,” which he said was co-opted into an “antisemitic trope” by social media users.

Klavan, 69, is ethnically Jewish but converted to Anglicanism in his late 40s. He is a successful screenwriter and author. While claiming to be a conservative, he is an outspoken supporter of homosexual “marriage.”


During a sit-down interview with the British-based Triggernometry podcast Wednesday, Klavan explained that Owens’ behavior was making things “uncomfortable” at the company.

“There were things going out over out air that she was saying that were being at least received … as being deeply antisemitic,” he said.

“I also believe in the cross of Christ,” he added, “but if you burn the cross on somebody’s lawn, it’s no longer the cross of Christ, it’s just a vehicle or symbol of your toxic hatred.”

Klavan pointed to influencer Nick Fuentes and his “groyper” supporters as those who were using the phrase in a hateful manner.

Klavan told the podcast’s hosts that while he doesn’t know if Owens “intended” her remarks “to be received” in an antisemitic way, the fallout “simply became impossible” for him to have a good feeling about her being there.

Owens parted ways with the Daily Wire on March 22. Since November 2023, she had been taking many public stances against the prevailing neoconservative narrative on the Israel-Gaza conflict. In one tweet, she characterized the attacks as “genocide.” In another, she quoted the Bible, stating “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

In response, Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro suggested she should quit while telling supporters at a private gathering that her views on the war were “absolutely disgraceful.”

Owens indirectly responded to Shapiro during an interview with Tucker Carlson where she denied that her remarks were anti-Semitic.


Klavan argued Wednesday that Owens’ dismissal wasn’t the same as cancel culture because the Daily Wire is a private company with “conservative views” and therefore is unlike social media because it can decide who it wants to pay for their perspective.

In March, Traditional Catholics, Evangelicals, Zionist Jews, and others engaged in heated debates on X about whether the phrase “Christ is King” is itself or was being used for “antisemitic” purposes.

As reported by LifeSite at the time, Catholics like Taylor Marshall and Matt Gaspers of Catholic Family News praised Owens and Christ the King messaging.


Daily Wire co-CEO Jeremy Boreing argued in a lengthy X post that the phrase is “not innately antisemitic” but “may be antisemitic” in certain contexts.


Klavan himself weighed in on the situation at the time, condemning Christians who he said “spit that phrase at Ben Shapiro.”

“If Ben were to embrace Jesus Christ it would cause devastation to his family, to the people who love him, to the people who listen to him, to his position in the world,” he remarked.


Owens appears to be biding her time before re-emerging in the public domain. While still publishing hot takes on X about current events, she has not announced plans for a show similar to the one she had on the Daily Wire.

In April, Owens was baptized into the Catholic Church and announced the news on X. She participated in the grueling, three-day Chartres Pilgrimage in France this past week.


Owens is scheduled to address the Catholic Identity Conference later this fall.

Editor’s note: This article was updated May 29, 2024.

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