MICHELLE GOLDBERG: Candace Owens Is the Conservative Movement’s Frankenstein Monster |
Recently Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, traveled to Nashville to meet with Candace Owens, a podcaster who has become the premier purveyor of conspiracy theories about her husband's murder. If the summit was meant to persuade Owens to back off her paranoid and fantastical speculations, it failed.
Owens' musings are unhinged, but Erika Kirk's trip to Nashville, brokered by conservative star Megyn Kelly, demonstrates that they've become too influential for right-wing leaders to ignore. Kelly--a former Fox News host who'd never been known for her outré views--has refused to denounce Owens, insisting her ideas are legitimate.
On her podcast, Kelly said that she buys the official story that Kirk was killed by Tyler Robinson, the Utah man charged with the crime. But, she added, "many people believe there's more to this story, that we're being lied to by our FBI, that there are too many inconsistencies around the official story. And those people are more than entitled to that belief."
The aftermath of Kirk's assassination should have been a unifying moment for the right. The facts of the case--Robinson is said to have had a trans partner and was angry about Kirk's demonization of sexual minorities--would have been easy for conservatives to exploit in their fight against gender nonconformists. But Robinson evidently wasn't a grand enough enemy for some on today's right, which is increasingly built on........