What specific comments by Candace Owens have drawn criticism regarding antisemitism?
Executive summary
Candace Owens has made a string of public statements and promoted materials that critics say recycle classic antisemitic tropes — from urging audiences to read a debunked 19th‑century antisemitic tract to asserting Jewish responsibility for the Atlantic slave trade and portraying Jewish law as uniquely corrupting — prompting rebukes from Jewish leaders, scholars and conservative peers [1] [2] [3]. Independent trackers and advocacy groups report a sharp uptick in antisemitic content tied to her output, while some allies treat her remarks as anti‑establishment criticism of Israel and Jewish influence rather than hate speech [4] [5] [6].
1. Urging viewers to read a 19th‑century antisemitic book and citing it as evidence
Owens held up and recommended a notorious 19th‑century anti‑Jewish tract on a livestream, telling viewers to “read about what Jews really think,” a move that critics said legitimized a debunked source that has long fueled antisemitic mythmaking and was described repeatedly in coverage of the episode [1] [7] [2].
2. Claims that Jews “orchestrated” the transatlantic slave trade and racial conflict
In that same broadcast and related appearances, Owens alleged Jewish orchestration of the transatlantic slave trade and framed Jews as fomenters of division between white and Black Americans — historical attributions that Jewish organizations and commentators called baseless and drawn from long‑debunked conspiratorial tropes [1] [8] [2].
3. Attacks invoking the Talmud and labeling Ben Shapiro a “Talmudic Jew”
Responding to Ben Shapiro’s criticism, Owens accused him and other Jews of having “no values that exist outside of the Talmud,” and used the phrase “Talmudic Jew” in a pejorative context — assertions that Jewish scholars and figures such as Dennis Prager have publicly refuted as distortions of Jewish law and incendiary rhetoric [1] [3].
4. Promoting conspiracies about Israel, intelligence services, and high‑profile crimes
Owens has suggested, in the context of feuds and commentary, that Israel or Israeli intelligence could be implicated in conspiratorial narratives — including insinuations around Charlie Kirk’s murder and other events — a line critics say slides from critique of policy into demeaning conspiracism about a people and a state [1] [4].
5. Repeating ritual‑murder, Frankist and pedophile‑cult allegations
In livestreams and broadcasts she has advanced claims linking early sects like the Frankists and figures such as Leo Frank to ritual murder and pedophilia, asserting these groups were behind crimes timed to Jewish holidays — recycled versions of the “blood libel” and other classic antisemitic slanders flagged by observers [9] [8].
6. Defense or minimization of other explicitly antisemitic statements and figures
Owens previously defended Kanye West’s “going death con 3 on Jewish people” remark as not antisemitic and has been criticized for downplaying overt antisemitic language from public figures, an element critics cite as pattern‑building toward normalizing antisemitic narratives [10] [11].
7. How institutions and watchdogs quantify and respond
Studies and monitoring groups note a substantial proportion of Owens’s output mentioning Jews was classified as antisemitic by automated analysis, with some reports saying roughly half to three‑quarters of such videos fell into that category over certain periods; advocacy organizations have publicly condemned her and even given her symbolic “Antisemite of the Year” labels [4] [6] [12].
8. Pushback, defenses and limits of available reporting
Prominent conservative voices including Ben Shapiro publicly condemned Owens’ rhetoric, while other GOP figures have been slower to distance themselves, framing the debate as intra‑right disputes over strategy and free speech; the sources document both the specific comments and institutional reactions but do not exhaustively capture Owens’s internal intent or every response she has made to critics [1] [3] [6].
Conclusion: specific comments that drew the fire
The criticisms coalesce around a core set of specific remarks: her promotion of a discredited antisemitic book; claims that Jews ran the slave trade and engineered racial strife; pejorative invocations of the Talmud and “Talmudic Jew” directed at Ben Shapiro; conspiratorial allegations tying Jews or Israel to violent crimes; revival of blood‑libel style charges about ritual murder and sexual criminality; and minimization or defense of other explicit antisemitic statements — each repeatedly cited in the reporting as the concrete triggers for widespread condemnation [1] [2] [9] [10] [8] [12].