Candace Owens has leaked audio from a conference call in which she claims Erika Kirk expressed an “upbeat” attitude while speaking to Turning Point USA employees less than two weeks after the assassination of her husband, Charlie Kirk.
In a YouTube video posted Tuesday, the conservative commentator said the audio was recorded just 12 days after Charlie’s death. In it, Erika appears to reflect on the Sept. 21 memorial service held for her husband after she became the organization’s CEO.
“The fact that we were able to pull off an event of a century, like, it’s just insane,” Erika allegedly said. “We had over 275,000 people that attended and stadium overflow.”
She went on to praise all the people who helped put together and market the event, noting they had since hit “over 200,000 for merch sales.”
Erika then asked that if any employees “have beef with each other from the past” to please “put it to rest.”
“My husband’s dead. Like, I’m not trying to be morbid, but he’s dead,” she said. “And it puts life into perspective, of how short life is.”
Reacting to the audio, Owens said she found Erika’s overall tone “off-putting,” specifically laughter that can heard in the two-minute clip.
“We are not even two weeks after watching your husband be assassinated [and] we’re talking about numbers and metrics that have been hit,” she said. “That’s moving pretty quickly to the acceptance phase. Now, we know everybody grieves differently [but] in my imagination, I just thought she would be more upset.”
The relationship between the two right-wing figures has been strained in the aftermath of Charlie’s killing, as Owens has fueled several conspiracy theories regarding the shooting.
When asked about the clip’s authenticity, a spokesperson for Owens responded, “The video is real and authenticated.”
