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Political commentator Candace Owens has accused Turning Point USA of inflating the viewership numbers for its All-American Halftime Show.
On Sunday, February 8, Owens took to the social media platform X to express her skepticism about the right-wing group’s claim of attracting 5 million viewers on various social media channels during their Super Bowl 2026 halftime event, spearheaded by Charlie Kirk.
Owens responded to a previous post on X, which showed a YouTube channel’s viewership at just under 6,000, by commenting, “The issue with those who have unearned wealth is their lack of understanding of how things truly function.”
In a follow-up post, she elaborated, “This is about an organization that manipulated its viewership stats by paying for platform advertisers and getting influencers to falsely claim record-breaking numbers.”
Meanwhile, Charles Barkley has a strong opinion on NFL fans criticizing Taylor Swift. “If you’re yelling at Taylor Swift for supposedly ruining football, you’re just a loser,” declared Barkley, 60, on the February 1 episode of his King Charles show. “You’re either a loser or a jackass. It’s one or the other.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Turning Point USA for comment.
Earlier in the evening, Blake Neff, who produced The Charlie Kirk Show before the politician’s September 2025 assasination and helped stage Turning Point USA’s halftime show, wrote via X, “TPUSA All-American Halftime Show … Over 5 million simultaneous on TPUSA YT [YouTube]. Almost 1 million on Charlie Kirk’s YT. 200k on Magno News YT. 220k on TPUSA Rumble. 15k CK Rumble.”
The post continued, “The entire audience on RAV. And noticeably, the audience kept going up throughout the competing show.” (Neff referred to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl 2026 Halftime Show.)
Owens’ thoughts on Turning Point USA’s halftime performance were accompanied by her thoughts on Bad Bunny’s show, revealing that she did not approve of either. “I am sorry but I hate both options,” she declared.
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Of Bad Bunny’s performance, she wrote, “We have a haltime show presented without a word of English spoken,” before she concluded, “The left vs.right grift is actually boring now. What exactly are we doing here, America?”
Owens, who worked as a communications director for Turning Point USA from 2017 to 2019, forged a friendship with Charlie before his death at age 31. The pair met in 2017 while embarking on their individual political careers. Despite their camaraderie, Owens did not share the same fondness for Charlie’s wife, Erika Kirk, in the aftermath of Charlie’s death.
Owens spoke publicly about her belief that Tyler Robinson, who was arrested for Charlie’s death, was wrongfully accused.
Months later, Owens published a leaked conference call recording of Erika, 37, that was allegedly recorded 12 days after Charlie’s death. In the audio, Erika appeared to be praising members of the Turning Point USA team for their recent successes. (A spokesperson for Owens told Us Weekly at the time that the video was “real and authenticated.”)
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Owens said of the recording, “We are not even two weeks after watching your husband be assassinated. We’re talking about numbers and metrics that have been hit.”
Erika, who has taken over as CEO of Turning Point USA and also serves as a chairwoman for the organization since Charlie died, publicly condemned the recording’s release while publicly stating that she wanted Owens to stop peddling conspiracy theories about Charlie’s death.
The pair’s tension led to a December 2025 meeting between Erika and Owens. While details of the meeting were not publicly revealed, both parties took to their individual X accounts in the aftermath to label their four-and-a-half-hour discussion “productive.”