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Welcome back to False Flag! Right-wing media proved its necessity to Donald Trump in the aftermath of the killing of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents on Saturday, immediately rallying behind the administration’s nonsensical defense and its smears of the victim. Perhaps Pretti, in his final spasms, reached for his empty holster, argued Alex Jones. Or maybe he could be killed because he “impeded traffic,” argued conservative podcaster Liz Wheeler.
But here’s the problem: People have cell phones. And those cell phones record videos. And those videos can be posted online. And human beings with functioning eyes can watch that footage. And the act of watching that footage undercuts even the most creative attempts to exonerate the Border Patrol agents.
The almost universal decision among MAGA pundits not to grapple seriously with Pretti’s killing reminded me of how unique it was to see Trump face backlash from his allies over closing the Jeffrey Epstein case last summer. Trump’s Epstein U-turn only broke through because it was on the right’s terms: This was supposed to be a Democratic scandal, not a Republican one. Even the killing of a man who was lawfully carrying a gun and lawfully protesting—a case you would think the right would find sympathetic—doesn’t trouble them the same way.
Still, even the power of conservative commentators appears to be unable to save Trump on this one. The man, after all, can read polls. And on Monday he began distancing himself from his administration’s defense of the shooting.
For today’s newsletter, we’re going to focus not on Minneapolis but on the right-wing media’s ability to distort reality. And there’s no one more talented at that than Candace Owens. The prominent podcaster/YouTuber has cashed in on the assassination of Charlie Kirk with off-the-wall conspiracy theories. But Kirk’s Turning Point USA organization is finally getting litigious over her claims that they were somehow involved in their founder’s murder.
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–Will
Candace Owens Has a Serious New Legal Headache
There might be consequences to accusing people of abetting murder . . . maybe.
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Candace and Desist
POPULAR FAR-RIGHT PODCASTER Candace Owens has, more than anyone, capitalized on the murder of her friend Charlie Kirk by spreading conspiracy theories about it. She regularly racks up millions of YouTube videos with claims that Israel was involved in Kirk’s assassination, or even that a bee-themed cult did it.
It got so bad that Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, agreed to a private meeting to try and cool down the rhetoric. But Owens was unbowed and Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, saw its annual convention in December consumed with in-fighting over Owens and her theories.
Now the organization is getting more aggressive.
On Wednesday, Owens published portions of a cease-and-desist letter she said she had received from TPUSA’s lawyers, warning her to retract her claims and stop saying that TPUSA and its officials “knew about the assassination beforehand, participated in the assassination day-of, or covered up the truth about the assassination after the fact.”
In one portion of the letter published by Owens, TPUSA’s lawyers said that they had asked her for retractions in a prior letter sent on December 2. The lawyer also writes that they had held video calls with Owens on December 4 and December 15—that latter discussion taking place the same day as the Owens–Erika Kirk peace summit.
The letter also hints at why this might end up being so problematic for Owens: She has a prior agreement with TPUSA not to make “any disparaging, false, misleading, or otherwise defamatory comment(s) about TPUSA, and/or its employees, agents, directors, officers, affiliates, programs, or services.”
TPUSA didn’t respond to a request for comment. But Owens herself said on Wednesday that the nondisparagement agreement with TPUSA lasted up until early December 2025—an arrangement she potentially could have breached with her numerous allegations about TPUSA’s supposed complicity in Kirk’s assassination.
It raises two obvious questions: Why on earth did she pick this fight in the first place? And how much trouble is she actually in? Let’s dive into that...