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Political commentator Candace Owens has slammed Erika Kirk for pulling out of a Turning Point USA event alongside Vice President JD Vance at the last minute.
Taking to X on Tuesday, April 14, just hours after Erika, 37, confirmed she was cancelling her appearance at the University of Georgia due to alleged security threats, Owens, 36, claimed the circumstances were falsely reported.
“Stop. This is exhausting. You pulled out because of bad ticket sales. For the same reason TPFaith had to “reschedule” the Pastor’s Summit and various other events quietly,” Owens directed to Erika, referring to Turning Point USA Faith, a division of the organization that is staging the Fast Forward Pastors’ Summit in Texas on April 21. (It is unclear when the original scheduling was set.)
Owens’ post replied directly to Erika’s earlier X post that announced her event withdrawal. “I was so looking forward to tonight’s event at the @universityofga with our Vice President @JDVance, but after all our family has been through, I take my security team’s recommendations extremely seriously,” Erika had written.
Owens continued, “People don’t believe you and don’t line up for you because you struggle to tell the truth about even the most basic facts. Where is the video of Charlie appointing you as CEO weeks before his death?” (Charlie Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA and Erika’s late husband, was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on September 10, 2025. He was 31 years old.)
A report by Fox 5 Atlanta on Tuesday stated that Vance, 41, said on stage that he had consulted with the Secret Service in light of “threats” that had been directed towards Erika.
Candace Owens Jason Kempin/Getty Images
Owens, who has maintained an ongoing feud with Erika in the wake of Charlie’s death, disputed the claim, writing in her post, “The Secret Service sits above your security team. Were there actually a viable threat, the vice president would not have continued the event.”
Owens concluded her post with one final criticism aimed at Erika and her Turning Point USA team. “Your closest threat is the s*** public relations team you hired that continues to operate under the delusion that they are smarter than the public. They aren’t,” Owens wrote.
Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet detailed Erika’s no-show while stepping into her place at Tuesday’s event. “I’m on stage here instead of our friend Erika Kirk because unfortunately she has received some very serious threats in her direction, which is terrible,” Kolvet told the crowd. “It’s a terrible reflection on the state of reality and the state of the country.”
Vance also commented on Erika’s absence, telling the room, “Well, first of all, I love Erika. And I know that she did get some threats. And, you know, about two hours ago, Andrew, I was a little worried that we were going to have to cancel the event because Erika was not going to come, and she was very worried about it,” Vance said. “I said, ‘You know what? Let’s let Erika do what she needs to do for herself and her family.’ The people telling you that Erica wasn’t grieving her husband are full of s***, and we need to be honest. But if your instinct is to go after a young mother because she’s grieving in a way that you find wrong, well, why don’t you stay in your lane and mind your own business?”
Erika Kirk Olivier Touron / AFP
Owens’ feud with Erika was ignited when she started sharing conspiracy theories about Charlie’s murder via social media. The posts led Erika to ask Owens to “stop” during a December 2025 interview with CBS News.
Despite a “very productive conversation” between the duo in the weeks that followed, Owens continued to speak out against Erika at the beginning of 2026, leaking apparent audio of Erika speaking to Turning Point USA team members two weeks after Charlie’s death.
Owens claimed at the time that Erika’s tone was audibly “upbeat” and “off putting.”
