Ben Shapiro spoke at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest on Thursday and used much of his 20-minute address to sharply criticize conservative firebrands, including Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, calling them “frauds,” “grifters,” and “charlatans.” Shapiro also called out Megyn Kelly for seeing “no purpose in inserting herself” on one side of the argument.

BEN SHAPIRO: The notion that people in our industry are close friends, like we all take holiday breaks with each other and go to each other’s kids’ graduations and stuff, is generally untrue. Some people do that, most of us don’t. We see each other at conferences and we talk on the phone and all the rest. We’re business colleagues. But even if it were true that other public figures were our best friends, our very best friends, that does not relieve us of our duty to speak out of principle and not to cover up evil or shy away from addressing it out of friendship. So no, Tucker Carlson, it is not an excuse to go silent on Candace’s targeting of TV USA or to mirror her bullshit lines of questioning because you love Candace personally. The same holds true of Megyn Kelly, a person I consider a friend, characterizing Candace as a young mother and thus shying away from condemning her actions or fibbing about them. That is a non-starter. Megyn Markle is a young mother. Ilhan Omar is a young mother. That doesn’t matter. And when Megyn said this week, quote, my goal and my job here is to try to understand, yes, where Candace is coming from on this, and says she sees no purpose in inserting herself, quote, into this on one side, that is a moral and logical absurdity. There is only one moral side here, Erika Kirk’s side. You know, the side of the widow with two children, whose husband was shot live on camera in front of all of us. Friendship with the person accusing TV USA of a cover-up of Charlie’s murder is no excuse for cowardice.

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