Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

‘That Is Retarded’: Ben Shapiro Goes After Fellow AmericaFest Speakers, Candace Owens

Ben Shapiro Goes After Fellow AmericaFest Speakers, Candace Owens (Screenshot/CSPAN)

The Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro criticized fellow media figures and speakers Thursday during his speech at AmericaFest.

Turning Point USA opened its annual AmericaFest conference Thursday at the Phoenix Convention Center, presenting the four-day event as a celebration of faith, freedom, and the legacy of founder Charlie Kirk. Speaking at the event, Shapiro said media figures must take responsibility for their words, actions, hiring decisions, and guest choices, adding that hosts owe audiences tough, fact-driven questioning regardless of whether they agree with the guest.

“We have a duty to take responsibility for what we say and do. If we hire awful people, we’re responsible for that. I have some experience there, as you might suspect. That means that if we offer a guest for your viewing, we owe it to you to ask the kinds of questions that actually get at the truth,” Shapiro said. “If we agree with a guest, that’s fine, but we should own it. So, for example, if you host a Hitler-apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of refuse like Nick Fuentes. You know, the Nick Fuentes who said that the Vice President of the United States is a, quote, fat, gay race traitor married to a jeet.”

Shapiro referenced past remarks Nick Fuentes made during his AmericaFest speech, pointing to Fuentes’ comments about the TPUSA founder.

WATCH: 

“The person who said that Charlie Kirk was a, quote, retarded idiot. The person who said, and pardon my language here, it’s his quote, that he, quote, took Turning Point USA and fucked it, and that’s why it’s filled with Groypers,” Shapiro added. “If you have that person on your show and you proceed to blaze him, you ought to own it. There is a reason that Charlie Kirk despised Nick Fuentes, and indeed even chided Dinesh D’Souza for debating him.”

The feud between Fuentes and Kirk dates back to 2019, when Fuentes and his supporters, known as Groypers, repeatedly disrupted Turning Point USA events and accused Kirk of promoting establishment conservatism. Kirk publicly rejected Fuentes and his movement, barred them from TPUSA events, and privately warned allies, including Dinesh D’Souza, that engaging with Fuentes only amplified his platform.

Shapiro accused Daily Caller News Foundation co-founder Tucker Carlson of building up Fuentes and said media figures must also take responsibility for promoting controversial guests.

“He knew that Nick Fuentes is an evil troll and that building him up is an act of moral imbecility. And that is precisely what Tucker Carlson did. He built Nick Fuentes up. And he ought to take responsibility for that, just as he ought to take responsibility for glazing pornographer and alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate, or for mainstreaming fake historian and pseudo-Nazi apologist Daryl Cooper as America’s best and most honest popular historian,” Shapiro said. “Hosts are indeed responsible for the guests they choose and the questions they ask those guests. Because we have a duty to truth, we also have a duty to provide you with evidence of the claims that we make.”

Shapiro also criticized Candace Owens, saying her remarks relied on assertion rather than evidence and failed to meet basic standards of factual support.

“Emotive accusations, conspiracy theories, and just-asking questions. That’s lazy and stupid and misleading. None of them are a substitute for truth. None of them are a substitute for evidence. So, when Candace Owens says,’ I don’t know, no, but I know,’ that is retarded. And we are all more retarded for having heard it.”

Owens has repeatedly claimed that more than one person was involved in the assassination of the late TPUSA founder. Owens has also cast doubt on whether Tyler Robinson killed Kirk, saying conversations with a lawyer left her uncertain about Robinson’s role in the shooting.

“There’s always a team of lawyers, especially for something like this. And what I got from the lawyer did not make me feel that Tyler Robinson shot Charlie Kirk, does not make me feel confident that Charlie, that he didn’t or did shoot Charlie Kirk,” Owens said.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/CSPAN)