‘Off-putting’: Candace Owens reacts to leaked audio of Erika Kirk thankful about ‘numbers and metrics hit’ following Charlie Kirk’s memorial service

During parts of the audio, Erika Kirk refers to her husband’s public memorial service as the “event of the century.”

Just when you thought everything was OK between Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, Owens added more fuel to the fire.

On her YouTube show on Tuesday (Jan. 27), Owens shared audio recorded less than two weeks after Charlie Kirk was shot and killed by a gunman at an event in Utah, showing Erika’s thanks and gratitude for Turning Point USA over the memorial for her late husband, a moment Owens calls “off putting.”

“I don’t even know where to begin,” Erika can allegedly be heard saying at the beginning of the clip. “The fact that we were able to pull off an event of a century, like, it’s just insane. We had over 275,000 people that attended and stadium overflow, west gate. Insane, you guys. And then you have, was it 100 million? We had thousands that were registered to vote. I think we’re at like over 200,000 for merch sales.”

She added, “I just wanted to say a huge, huge, huge thank you to the events team. The development team, the graphic design team, the production team.”

Charlie Kirk’s public memorial was held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The home of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals became an event space complete with pyrotechnics, speeches by conservative dignitaries such as Vice President J.D. Vance, and more. Since her husband’s death, Erika Kirk has assumed the duties of being the leader of the conservative group.

Erika pointed out staffers who worked on the event, some spending 20-hour days and sleepless nights putting it together, “during the time of us grieving the loss of my husband.”

“I don’t care if any of you have beef with each other from the past or have any issues with someone said something about this or that. Like, if you guys have any of that, please put it to rest,” she continued. “My husband’s dead. Like, I’m not trying to be morbid, but he’s dead. And it puts life into perspective, of how short life is.”

After the call ended, Owens gave her thoughts on it, referring to Erika’s mentioning of metrics as “off-putting” and noticing that her general tone appeared to signal she’d quickly moved on to the “acceptance stage” of grief.

“It is the general tone that is off-putting,” Owens began. “It is the laughter that is off-putting. Again, we are not even two weeks after watching her husband be assassinated, we’re talking about numbers and metrics that have been hit.”

She added, “We know everybody grieves differently. In my imagination, I just thought she would be more upset.”

Previously, Owens and Erika Kirk met with one another in December to address Owens’ belief that there was more to Charlie Kirk’s death than Turning Point USA and authorities were letting on. Erika urged Owens to stop spreading theories and told her followers on social media that the two had a “very productive conversation.”

From her perspective on the meeting, Owens wrote on Twitter, “Erika and I had an extremely productive 4 1/2 hour meeting that I think we both feel should have taken place a lot earlier than it did.”

She added, “We agreed much more than I had anticipated. Of course, we also disagreed on various points and people as well. Most importantly, we were able to share intel and clarify intent. I will, of course, have a full rundown for you all tomorrow as I am currently exhausted, but I wanted to quickly let you guys know that absolutely nothing was held back and the immediate result was that tensions were thawed.”

Even if tensions thawed then, they might freeze over again after Owens’ latest maneuver.