Posted on 12/19/2025 9:15:32 PM PST by Kazan
PHOENIX — For a second day in a row, a long-brewing internal fight among MAGA influencers spilled onto the stage of Turning Point USA's first annual conference since the September slaying of Charlie Kirk, the organization's co-founder.
Podcaster Ben Shapiro, speaking on the AmericaFest convention's opening night Thursday, ripped into right-wing broadcasters Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Candace Owens and Megyn Kelly, as well as white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
At the core of his argument is a case that Owens has peddled conspiracy theories, without objection from Kelly and other prominent conservatives, about Kirk's assassination. Those theories include suggestions that foreign governments — including Israel's — and employees of Turning Point USA could have been involved. Prosecutors in Utah have charged Tyler Robinson, 22, in the killing and are seeking the death penalty. He has yet to enter a plea.
"The conservative movement is also in danger from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty," Shapiro said. "Those of us with a microphone have a moral obligation to call that out by name."
He condemned Carlson for hosting Fuentes — whom he called "a Hitler apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of refuse" — and Bannon for "maligning people that he disagrees with" by accusing them of "loyalty to a foreign country."
Bannon fired back on Friday night from the same stage, accusing Shapiro of wanting to take over Turning Point USA and putting Israel's interests ahead of the United States.
"Ben Shapiro is like a cancer, and that cancer spreads," Bannon said to cheers from the crowd of thousands at the Phoenix Convention Center.
The back-and-forth amounts to a flashpoint among conservative influencers over U.S. policy toward Israel and a sign that leaders of the MAGA movement are jockeying for power as President Donald Trump’s final term progresses and the next presidential election nears.
“This is a proxy on ’28,” Bannon, who was a top adviser to Trump during the 2016 campaign and the early days of his first term, said Friday night, adding that Kirk was an opponent of "this concept of greater Israel and Israel first."
In the months before his death, Kirk at times questioned America's backing for some of Israel's policies. He asked his followers on X in June whether the U.S. should "get involved in Israel's war against Iran."
The issue has divided the MAGA base for much of the last year.
"There was a rift even before we lost Charlie," Kelly said Friday night during a conference talk with conservative influencer Jack Posobiec, "and it revolves around Israel."
Carlson responded in his own remarks Thursday night to the AmericaFest audience by questioning the appropriateness of Shapiro using the forum to try to cow people with whom he disagrees.
"To hear calls to deplatform," Carlson said Thursday, "at a Charlie Kirk event?"
No it doesn’t
I’m starting to believe that it’s MAGA versus rino’s. In the GOP
Shapiro’s shrillness sounds like over-the-target flak.
It always has been.
The GOP has no interest in making America Great.
The GOP is focused in destroying America.
Just as the Democrats are. Perhaps for different reasons.
And may use different methods. But the end results remain the same.
..... I dunno ........ Everything seems to be going along just fine ..... Just the way the Democrats have planned it to!
..... The Republican Party is so Dysfunctional that they are easily played by the Democrat leadership. The only thing that was different in this past Federal election that allowed the GOP to actually win was the entrance of andeterable Donald Trump.
..... Unfortunately, since then, the once unified and energized Republican Party has now devolved into what amounts to the equivalent of a cage full of untrained Chimpanzees and the whole nation not to mention the whole world now sees this.
.
But, maybe I misheard him. I'll have to listen again.
Israel is one of God’s biggest miracles.
What a mess.
We'll have to assume that some guys like Nick Fuentes are paid agitators. He is probably on Soros' payroll. Now we are familiar with their strategy.
If it wasn’t for Nixon resupplying Israel after the ‘73 war, it most likely have fallen.
Ah yes, I was keenly interested in what the effin communists at NBC think about the maga movement.
What kind of crap are you peddling??
Some of those anti-MAGA opps are posting in this very thread...
The modern nation of Israel is Satans creation. When God brings the people back to the land, they will dwell in peace. 78 years of warring is not peace.
It’s the same B.S. that Kazan frequently posts
not really. NBC is full of crap
you don’t even know what that means
He specifically called out a number of other TPUSA supporters and speakers IIRC called them frauds. I found his words insulting. Shapiro is an Isreal first guy. He seems very arrogant and believes he is the one to decide the meaning of the term “Conservative”. He has never liked Trump and I’ve never liked or trusted him.
As a Pennsylvania I have more than occasionally wondered about the degree of kinship between Ben Shapiro and Gov. Josh Shapiro.
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