Someone the other day asked me, why are you so concerned about Candace Owens?
And I said, it's not Candace Owens, it's free speech.
She happens to be the target today.
She happens to be the one that people are focusing on.
But tomorrow is going to be somebody else.
It's going to be Candace Smith.
Let me say this again.
Listen to what I'm saying, please.
It's not about her.
It's anyone.
She happens to be in the crosshairs.
She's in the crosshairs.
She's targeted.
There's a bounty on her head.
Figuratively.
I hope figuratively.
I hope.
Because what's happening, my friend, to Candace Owens right now is not normal disagreement.
This is what I want you to hear loud and clear.
It's not a bunch of people saying, hey, you know, you're wrong about this Egyptian plane story or your timeline doesn't add up or your sources are bad or I think this particular theory doesn't make sense or this hypothesis.
I think you're missing something.
No, that's not what this is.
What you're seeing instead is people going after her as a person to discredit her, to besmirch her, to crush her, her motives, her sanity, her credibility as a human being.
And that difference matters more than anything else.
Please understand that.
Please, it's not about what she's saying.
It's about her.
It's to send a message.
Don't be Candace.
They tried that with Alex Jones.
They tried it with her.
If you don't like what she's saying, say this theory doesn't make sense or the Egyptian plane theory, whatever it is.
It doesn't matter.
But don't say Candace is wrong.
Candace made a mistake.
Candace.
They did this with Alex Jones.
Alex Jones is crazy.
Alex Jones.
No.
If somebody says no one landed on the moon, then the theory is incorrect.
Not the person saying it.
That's like saying, oh, so if somebody else says this, it's okay.
Because if the theory is wrong, it's wrong for everybody.
Because my friends, when people stop arguing with what you're saying and start arguing about whether you should even be allowed to say it, that tells you something big just changed.
Huge.
Listen carefully.
This isn't about whether I or you agree with Candace on every issue.
I don't.
Nobody does.
It's not about whether she's right on every claim.
Nobody is.
That's not the point.
The point is how the reaction to her has shifted.
And once you see that shift, you can't unsee it.
If Candace were simply wrong, people would commonly explain why.
They would say, here are the data you missed.
Here's the document that contradicts you.
Here's the eyewitness testimony.
Here's where your conclusion goes off the rails.
That's how real disagreement works.
That's how it works.
When Einstein went after Newtonian mechanics, he didn't blast Newton.
It's the information.
It's the theory, the theorems.
That's how adults argue.
That's critical thinking.
But that's not what's happening here.
No, no, no, no.
And this is what's different.
What's happening is that people are rushing to discredit her entirely.
Not her claims, her.
She's reckless.
She's dangerous.
She's gone too far.
She's spiraling.
She's an anti-Semite.
She's irresponsible.
She's crazy.
She's doing harm.
Notice something.
None of that actually addresses what she's saying.
It just tries to make you uncomfortable listening to her.
Remember, the left wants to stop you from saying something, but the right, and this is coming from the right, the right wants you to keep, or to keep you rather, from thinking something.
See?
And this isn't accidental.
This is a tactic.
And here's the thing.
Here's the thing that people don't like to admit.
When that tactic shows up this aggressively, it usually means someone touched a nerve.
The third rail.
You don't bring out the nuclear option unless you think something matters.
There is a figurative bounty on Candace Owens right now.
Not a literal one, I hope.
A reputational one.
A permission structure has been created where anyone can take a shot at her and be rewarded for it.
Jump with the bandwagon.
You want your numbers to go up?
Attack her.
People who normally wouldn't agree on anything are suddenly aligned on one goal.
Take her down.
Take her down.
No.
That alone should make you stop and think.
And you know I'm right.
You know I'm right.
When strange alliances form overnight, it's not organic.
It's enforcement.
It's the message that's been sent.
And the irony here is that people piling on her don't seem to understand what they're doing.
They think they're weakening her.
They're not.
They're making her stronger.
It's Nietzsche all over again.
Every time someone attacks her, her, instead of addressing her arguments, they confirm what her audience and we already suspect.
That certain topics are off limits.
That certain questions are dangerous.
That certain people are not allowed to speak freely.
And once people sense that, they lean in.
They don't back away.
And they don't back off and they don't back down.
This always works the same way.
I'm telling you, I've been seeing this for 37 years, going on 40 years in this business, one form, since the days of Rush Limbaugh.
I've seen this.
I know what I'm talking about.
I've seen it with Alex.
I saw it with Rush.
I've seen it throughout, just go down the list.
I don't agree with everything everybody says, but it's not.
Look, I love Steely Dan.
I think Asia is my album, my Sgt. Pepper.
But I don't like every song.
I don't like everything they've ever done.
But what I do like, I love.
Sound familiar?
I don't agree with people for a variety of reasons, but it doesn't disqualify everything.
In contract law, there is this concept called severability.
If you ever sign something that said, if any provision of this contract is found to be void or illegal or improper, we're going to remove that part and proceed with the contract as is.
That's called the severability clause.
It means that if something goes wrong, if something is wrong, if something is, let's say, improper, we don't throw everything away.
We try to salvage it.
We try to work around that, which is important, that which we agree on, that which is okay.
So if Candace or Alex or Steve Bannon or whoever, Tucker, if they say something you disagree with, remove it and look at everything else.
What's their message?
Sounds good.
Okay.
It's like one bum album, one song on an album, an album.
Sometimes I think some people not go too far.
I'd rather go, people go too far than not far enough.
Sometimes I think folks get things wrong.
But I also know this.
The moment the media stopped arguing with folks like Alex and others and started arguing about whether he should exist at all, he became 10 times more influential to his audience.
You see, if you're in this position, and we've all been there, the moment they call you crazy, you've hit pay dirt.
You only take flack when you're over the target.
Find out whom you can't say anything bad about, and I'll tell you who runs the show.
Because the attacks aren't about facts anymore.
It's about control.
Same thing with Tucker Carlson.
Same thing.
You can agree or disagree with him.
That's not the issue.
The issue is how quickly the conversation turned into, you can't let this guy talk.
Remember, the left keep you from saying things.
The right keeps you from thinking things.
And once this happens, people know they're not being protected.
They're being managed.
They're being controlled.
It's almost like a cult.
You have followers and handlers.
Candace Owens is now in that same category.
And this is where it gets bigger than her.
My friend, we are at a weird moment right now where two major speech taboos are closing in from opposite sides.
On one side, you're told that you can't criticize Israel or Israeli policy without being labeled anti-Semitic.
On the other side, you're increasingly told that you cannot in any way criticize Islam, Islamist ideology, Muslim political influence, without risking the same kind of social or professional destruction that we've already seen play out in the UK.
So what's it going to be?
Can't say anything about Israel, can't say anything about Islam or Islamism.
Remember, progressivism is a religion hiding as a political ideology.
Islamist thinking is a political ideology hiding as a religion.
So what's it going to be?
I can't say Israel, can't say Israel, but anything you want to say about the U.S. or Trump, oh, attack away.
You see, people pretend these are separate issues, and they're not.
They're the same problem wearing different costumes.
That's all this is.
You see, you can't have free speech if entire subjects are protected from scrutiny and verbotim.
That's not tolerance.
That's hierarchy.
And what's the opposite of hierarchy?
Anarchy.
See, that's saying some ideas are allowed to be challenged and others aren't.
And once you accept that, once you're okay with that, once you tolerate that, free speech becomes a slogan instead of a reality, instead of a guarantee.
And we're giving it up.
They're not taking it from us.
We're giving it up.
And Candace Owens is in the crosshairs right now.
She's got the red dot on her.
She's operating right at that fault line.
Intel agencies, foreign policy, religion, power, these are the areas where speech enforcement show up first.
And surprise, surprise, that's exactly where the attacks are coming from.
And what really worries me, really, is how quickly people are being trained to accept this, to habituate to this, to be conditioned to this.
They're told this is about safety.
It's about responsibility.
It's about not spreading dangerous ideas.
Come on, you.
Do the right thing.
Wear that mask.
Stand on your adhesive strip six feet away.
Call in the rat line.
Do you see somebody not wearing a mask?
Do the right thing.
Trust the science.
Don't question us.
Don't question us.
Be a good citizen.
There, there, there.
But look closer.
Nobody is saying, here's where Candace is wrong, and here's the evidence.
I can't say that enough.
They're saying don't listen to her.
That's a big difference.
Remember, the right tells you what not to think.
And once you normalize attacking the speaker instead of the argument and the facts, everything changes.
Debate disappears.
It vanishes.
And then fear takes its place.
And people start watching what they say, not because they change their minds, but because they don't want trouble.
It's called prior restraint.
And that's how speech dies without any law ever being passed.
It's not the thought police, it's the thought vigilantes.
And don't think this stops with Candace Owens.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
It never does.
No, no, that's what I keep telling you.
She happens to be the subject right now, but it's going to be somebody else later on.
See, the first target is always something polarizing and someone polarizing.
Somebody who's a real firebrand.
Someone easy to caricature.
Someone people feel safe throwing under the bus.
Somebody who has said something that sounds crazy to somebody who's never researched it.
Okay?
And once that works, the circle then tightens.
Look at the UK.
Oh, this is, this is, I can't believe this is happening.
This didn't start with big dramatic crackdowns.
No!
It started with small justifications.
Harmony.
Sensitivity.
Public order.
And now you've got teachers afraid to teach.
People afraid to joke.
Citizens afraid to talk plainly about religion.
That didn't happen overnight.
It happened because people stayed quiet while others were targeted.
That's what happened.
We are closer right now to that than people would ever want to admit.
And this is why Candace deserves focus right now.
Not blind agreement, not idol worship.
No, no, no.
Focus, attention, defense of the principle, the principle of free ideation.
Because here's the truth nobody wants to say out loud.
If Candace Owens can't be treated this way without real pushback, then nobody's safe, including you.
The standard has been set.
You don't have to be wrong.
You just have to be inconvenient.
You get in the way.
You're making a problem.
You're too loud.
You're too right.
Let me repeat this because it matters.
This is not about whether she's right.
This is about whether she's allowed, whether she's permitted.
And once this conversation shifts from what is she's saying to why is she allowed to say it, free speech is dead.
Dead.
People like to think they'll recognize the moment when things go too far.
They won't.
It always feels reasonable.
It's incremental.
This successive approximation, to use the Scanarian term, it seems sensible, necessary, responsible.
Until one day, you realize the only people talking are the ones who already agree with each other.
Think about that for a second.
Candace Owens is powerful right now, not because she's flawless, but because she's showing us where the lines really are.
She's authentic, and we love her bravado, her brio.
And what's really critical, what's absolutely critical, is that the reaction to her is proving her point better than she ever could on her own.
My friend, this is code red.
Not because of Candace, but because of how people are reacting to her.
You know, I want you to watch who's being attacked.
Watch how.
Watch what arguments are missing.
Pay attention.
See, that's where the truth usually is.
That's where it is.
That's where it is.
So what I want you to do, my friends, is listen to me carefully.
And remember, this is not a Candace Owens fan film.
It's not about her.
Tomorrow it could be Alex again.
It could be Megan Kelly.
It could be, I don't know who.
It could be somebody you've never heard of before.
It doesn't matter.
In fact, every time we remain silent, we give an okay.
We say, all right, okay, all right.
But they do the least of my brother.
Or they'll say to you, you can't say that.
You can't say that.
Excuse me.
That's, oh, no, no, no.
That's Erica Kirk.
She's a widow.
Shut up.
Oh, no, no, don't say that.
That's Israel.
Oh, no, no, don't say that.
That's Islam.
Oh, no, no, don't say that.
Except if it's Trump or America.
My friends, you and I know.
It's over for that.
We're done.
We're not going to give up our right to speak.
We're not.
And the way that we ensure it is for you to understand exactly what I'm saying and to recognize the power and the necessity of free speech.
Now, if you would, I would be most appreciative if you accept my appreciation for your response, for your candor, for your kindness, for the comments that you've been making have been wonderful.
And I thank you for that.
I also want you, my friend, to do me a great favor and to like this video.
These little metrics by liking this more than anything you can imagine.
It puts us in the HOV lane.
I want people to understand, to listen to me.
This isn't right-wing.
This isn't left-wing.
It's not Democrat, not Republican.
It's American.
This is it.
This is what I'm about.
The Constitution of the United States.
And the right to vote, by the way.
I have my little stickers from all my various iterations of the franchise.
This is it.
This is my party.
This is my belief.
This is my left or right.
This is my, whatever you want to call it.
This is my CPAC or TPUSA or whatever it is.
It's the Constitution.
This never changes.
This is the one thing.
This is the rule book for how to be an American.
And it's enforceable.
And it's something that I treasure more than anything else.
And I have defended people who've said things that I absolutely, positively would never, ever agree with in the slightest.
But I don't care about this subject matter.
I care about the ability to say it.
So please, thank you.
Please accept my appreciation for you being with us.
I have some questions that I normally have, as you know, at the end for you to comment on.