Conservative Infighting Explodes At Turning Point USA's AmericaFest

Divides over how to address conspiracy theories and antisemitism were put on full display.

Top conservative influencers repeatedly turned on each other at Turning Point USA’s annual confab this past week while grappling with how to take on rising antisemitism and bigotry in the Republican Party.

The sold-out gathering, which was billed as AmericaFest and held in Phoenix, was the first event of its magnitude since TPUSA’s founder Charlie Kirk was shot and killed earlier this year. The infighting points to deeper divides the party is struggling to address, particularly since many of its younger members have embraced Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist and Holocaust denier, and other extremist views.

Ben Shapiro, a prominent conservative commentator, opened the event with a scathing takedown of a slew of Republican pundits, including some he accused of elevating conspiracy theories and antisemitism.

“The conservative moment is also in danger from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle, but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty,” Shapiro said. “These people are frauds, and they are grifters, and they do not deserve your time.”

Throughout his remarks on Thursday, Shapiro chewed out Candace Owens for promoting “baseless trash” about Kirk’s murder, blasted Megyn Kelly for failing to hold Owens accountable, criticized Tucker Carlson for his normalizing of Fuentes and derided Steve Bannon as a former “PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein.”