"So botted": Candace Owens responds after netizens allege she "got paid" during private meeting with Erika Kirk

Candace Owens and Erika Kirk announced on Monday that they had a productive in-person meeting. The private meeting came after Candace Owens had accused TPUSA of a cover-up in Charlie Kirk's assassination. Erika Kirk also hit out at the podcaster publicly and pressed her to discontinue her allegations.

In her Monday tweet, Candace Owens shared that she had a four-and-a-half-hour meeting with Erika Kirk. She said they agreed more than she had anticipated. Owens wrote that "tensions were thawed" between them. In the Tuesday episode of her podcast, Owens discussed her private meeting with Charlie Kirk's wife.

However, with the podcaster’s seemingly shifted tone, many netizens accused her of getting paid in the meeting. Media personality Collin Rugg shared a clip from her livestream along with screenshots of superchats. In the chat, viewers took shots at Candace Owens. The former Daily Wire host also read a user's comment highlighting the issue. She responded to negative comments by labeling them as bot-generated.

"Mr. Bruce Lee writes, 'People in the chat, many other channels are not hearing what they want to hear, so it's automatically,' Well, Candace got paid.' There's, the chats are so botted... And we've had so many people talk about how there are so many bots in the chat. And so focus on, obviously, the words that I am saying and obviously you can tell that I have not been paid."

Another viewer asked her why the meeting was not live. Candace Owens responded that initially, it was intended to be live. She mentioned that Megyn Kelly was supposed to be the moderator of that event. However, after the tensions between her and Erika Kirk escalated, an off-the-record meeting was proposed. Owens stated that she was glad that the conversation took place privately.

"I wished it was live. But I will also say I am glad that some parts weren't because I was then able to tell them some things that I have not yet said that I wanted to, like, fact-check and get some answers on," she added.

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Candace Owens acknowledges she was "aggressive" in post targeting TPUSA

On December 2, Candace Owens shared a post on X in which she alleged that Charlie Kirk was "betrayed" by TPUSA leadership. She also made an appeal to donors to ask for a refund from the organization. In the Tuesday episode, Owens said that Erika Kirk was upset with the post. The podcaster said that it was "aggressive" and that she should not have posted it.

"I have to own that. That's aggressive. That is actually aggressive in retrospect. I was very frustrated, and I don't know. I just felt like we weren't getting any answers, and there were so many lies, and then I was getting attacked for asking all meaningful questions that was within their capacity to answer. And I've told you my problem in life is that I can rise to anger very quickly."

Later in the interview, Owens claimed that, at her insistence, Erika Kirk confirmed Charlie Kirk had sent a text message the night before his murder about a threat to his life. TPUSA's CEO recently claimed on Glenn Beck's show that her husband did not send any alarming text a day before his assassination.

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Despite agreeing on several issues, Candace Owens disputed TPUSA's position on Charlie Kirk's murder suspect. The podcaster said even after talking to TPUSA's lawyers, she was not convinced that Robinson was responsible for killing the conservative activist.

Edited by Anuj Singh Kushwaha