Candace Owens has targeted conservative influencer Nick Shirley, who went viral in December last year for exposing alleged social security fraud in Minnesota. For the unversed, Owens has raised several questions about Erika Kirk and Andrew Kolvet in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. In her recent podcasts, the Candace host investigated the whereabouts of Kirk’s wife and Kolvet on the day Kirk was killed.
In the Tuesday episode of her show, Candace Owens reacted to Kolvet’s interview with Ross Douthat, which aired on December 11. In the interview, TPUSA’s spokesperson said that a day before leaving for his Utah tour, Kirk asked him to host the September 10 show as he was “tired.” Kolvet interviewed Nick Shirley on that show. Notably, Shirley was relatively unknown at the time.
Candace Owens raised eyebrows about whether Andrew Kolvet did the live show with Nick Shirley. She then played the video of the conversation between Shirley and Kolvet. In that podcast, The Charlie Kirk Show’s host discussed Shirley’s coverage of Brazil’s “most dangerous gang.” In the video, the 23-year-old influencer asserted that he infiltrated the gang within two days.
Owens cast doubt on Shirley’s claim and commented:
“Okay, I’m just going to say I don’t believe that at all. I’m sorry. It’s so stupid. I’m not even going to tell you why I don’t believe it. It’s like, if you don’t know that it’s stupid that he infiltrated the gang in 48 hours, like, it’s just that’s so dumb. I’m so tired of dumb. That’s not how that works.”
The podcaster insinuated that Shirley must have a “contact” who led him to infiltrate the gang. Owens compared Shirley to Sean Penn, noting that in movies, Penn remains surrounded by cartels and never gets hurt.
“He didn’t wander into a favela and meet up with gang members with the camera. And they were like, ‘Yeah, no, it’s cool. Come here,'” Candace Owens commented.
Candace Owens reaches out to Nick Shirley to confirm if he appeared live with Andrew Kolvet
Further in the episode, Candace Owens said that she didn’t care about Nick Shirley’s work or who his alleged contacts in the government were. She stressed that she just wanted to confirm whether he did a live show with Andrew Kolvet on the day Kirk was murdered. Owens claimed that she reached out to the independent journalist and inquired about the same.
Later, on her Wednesday podcast, Candace Owens shared that Shirley replied to her message.
“Nick Shirley was very kind and gave me the details, and it’s like, ‘Oh no, that I did actually do that live, and here’s everything and my communications about it’… Thank you to Nick Shirley for immediately getting back to me and confirming that was an authentically live show that took place within the 9:00–10:00 a.m. Pacific block,” Owens said.
Nick Shirley came into the spotlight in December last year, after his investigative video on Minnesota daycare went massively viral. The influencer received huge support from conservative political circles, including Elon Musk and JD Vance, after he exposed the alleged fraud in federally funded facilities.
Edited by Anuj Singh Kushwaha
