In the latest case of Republican in-fighting just dropped, and man it is wild.
In one corner, there’s Candace Owens, a conservative talking-head with a long history of faux-outrage hits like that time she questioned the purpose of celebrating Juneteenth and that time she accidentally advocated for free public healthcare and, a personal favorite, that time she had a public meltdown over the lyrics to Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s hip-hop ballad, “WAP.” In the opposite corner, there’s Trump-supporting Kimberly Klacik, a former Maryland Congressional candidate who lost by a whopping 40 percentage points in the 2020 election and ignited controversy with her campaign slogan, “Black people don’t have to vote Democrat.”
Both Black women were regular Fox News contributors and popular conservative sh*t stirrers until earlier this summer when they took their trash-talking skills and turned them on each other. According to a lawsuit filed by Klacik’s legal team and obtained by Fox Baltimore, Klacik is seeking $20 million in damages in a defamation suit that alleges Owens robbed her of everything from a book deal to more TV appearances and opportunities for a political career by posting a video claiming Klacik was guilty of being a money launderer, cocaine addict, and strip club madame.
The trouble started when the two women got into it over a petty dispute on Twitter after Owens made a Juneteenth post and Klacik commented back, calling out the Fox News personality for her “lack of engagement with Black people.” According to the lawsuit’s timeline, a few days later, Owens posted a 44 minute Instagram video, in which she alleged Klacik had participated in serious criminal behavior. Though Owens acknowledged she couldn’t confirm these rumors, she still shared them with her millions of followers, telling viewers Klacik had committed both tax fraud and campaign fraud, and recruited strippers to work at a club she says is owned by Klacik’s husband.
“In making these allegations of criminal activity, [Owens] claimed to have received information from someone who ‘stripped with [Ms. Klacik]’ and who allegedly told [Owens] that Ms. Klacik used campaign funds to purchase cocaine and scammed people of millions,” the complaint reads. “These caustic and made-up defamatory allegations are without factual support.”
Klacik’s suit says Owens’s statements coupled with her large social media following has left the failed Congressional candidate struggling to book appearances and led to harassment of herself and her family. Owens has yet to publicly address the suit.
(Via Fox Baltimore)