Candace Owens Says Turning Point USA ‘Scammed Its Views’ With All-American Halftime Show Video

Candace Owens is publicly claiming that Turning Point USA is lying about the viewership of its All-American Halftime Show.

The political commentator, 36, took to X on Sunday, February 8, shortly after the Kid Rock-led live stream ended, to allege that the stated 5 million viewers Turning Point USA claimed to draw across its various social media platforms were inflated or were even false numbers, going as far as to say the right-wing organization “scammed its views.”

Responding to an earlier post that questioned how the video of the live stream ended up with such little engagement after one hour — just 667 Likes and only 175 comments, per a screenshot posted on X — for an event that allegedly drew millions, Owens replied: “The problem with people who have a lot of money they didn’t earn, is that they tend to have no idea how stuff actually works. No, this is not a possible result if you truly had 5.2 million live viewers.”

She went on to theorize that Turning Point USA, which sponsored its All-American Halftime Show after conservatives were outraged by the choice of Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny to headline the actual Super Bowl LX Halftime Show, would spend “an offensive amount” on YouTube ads overnight to juice the numbers on its video. Indeed, overnight, the numbers did increase significantly on the Turning Point USA YouTube video.

However, just because she believes the organization juiced its own viewership numbers doesn’t mean she liked the alternative. Owens made sure to tell her followers that she was not in favor of Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show performance at Super Bowl LX, which Nielsen estimated drew 127.7 million viewers.

“I am sorry but I hate both options,” she wrote. “On The one hand, we have a half-time show presented without a word of English spoken. On the other hand we have an organization that scammed its views by paying platform advertisers, followed by influencers to pretend they broke records.”

Owens, who worked as a communications director for Turning Point USA from 2017 to 2019, has been publicly calling out the organization and its new leader, Erika Kirk, in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death.