Right-wing political commentator Candace Owens speaks during an event held by national conservative political movement ‘Turning Point’, in Detroit, Michigan, US, June, 14, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

Political commentator Candance Owens claimed on a popular podcast on Wednesday that the United States has a close relationship with Israel due to Israeli “blackmail.”

While appearing on the podcast “This Past Weekend,” Owens was asked by host Theo Von, a popular comedian, why she believed there was such a strong relationship between the United States and Israel.

Owens initially responded with a one-word answer: “Blackmail.”

She then went on to explain she believes “this is the reason we don’t get to open the Epstein files, we don’t get to open the JFK files.” She claimed its “a form of gaslighting” to pretend that Israel is a “special friend and ally” of the US.

Owens argued that Israel is not only blackmailing the United States into support, but that actually Israel is behind many other sketchy developments happening in the world.

“If you investigate anything Israel will start to come up,” said Owens, who made the unsubstantiated claim that Brigette Macron, the wife of French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron, was born a male, accusing Israel of being involved with that as well.

Owens then focused on Jeffrey Epstein, claiming his criminal sex ring was intended to act as a tool of blackmail on behalf of the Israeli government, that “the whole Mossad attended his funeral,” and that even Zionists acknowledge that he was an American-Israeli intelligence asset.

Within only two days of the episode airing on YouTube, it has already garnered more than 1.5 million views.

Owens did not mention several facts that could alternatively explain the close alliance between the US and Israel, such as shared values and strategic interests, nor did she mention that the relationship goes back decades before Epstein. US President Harry Truman recognized Israel 11 minutes after it was established, for example, and one of his successors, US President John F. Kennedy said in 1962, “The United States has a special relationship with Israel in the Middle East, really comparable only to that which it has with Britain over a wide range of world affairs.”

Von, who provided only limited pushback on any of Owens’ claims, has previously accused Israel of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza — and said he believes the reason the US wanted to ban TikTok was to cover it up.

After parting ways with The Daily Wire, a politically conservative media company, last year amid controversy over her comments regarding Jews and Israel, Owens has made those subjects top priorities on her own show.

In January, for example, Owens attacked the Babylon Bee — a conservative Christian satire organization — for making a joke about her fixation on Jews.

“It’s just very obvious they are worshipping Israel,” Owens said. “That they base their jokes on people who don’t worship Israel and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu.” She also referred to them as the “Zionist Bee” and the “Babylonian Talmudic Bee.”

In late July, Owens claimed that the Star of David originated from an evil, child-sacrificing, pagan deity and has only become associated with Judaism within the past few hundred years.

In a June episode, Owens argued that “it seems like our country [the US] is being held hostage by Israel.” She lamented, “I’m going to get in so much trouble for that. I don’t care.”

In the same episode, Owens claimed US Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was “wading into some dangerous waters” when, during an interview with host Tucker Carlson, he spoke about how effective the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is at lobbying members of Congress and suggested the group should have to register as a foreign agent that is acting on behalf of Israel.

The reason it was dangerous, Owens said, was because “we know there was once a president that wanted to make AIPAC register, and he ended up shot … so Thomas Massie better be careful.”

Owens was referencing the fact that Kennedy wanted the American Zionist Council, a lobby group, to register as a foreign agent.

However, there is no evidence the group had anything to do with Kennedy’s assassination.

Weeks later, Owens promoted a series of talking points downplaying the atrocities of the Holocaust and said experiments by Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele performed on Jews during World War II sounded “like bizarre propaganda.”