For an organization still reeling from its founder’s assassination, the bombshell released on October 6 provided the distraction Turning Point USA staffers feared most.

Candace Owens, the controversial conservative commentator once regarded as Charlie Kirk’s protégé, had just published his private text messages that he had sent to a group chat of nine people two days before he was shot and killed.

The screenshots, published on Owens’ show, revealed Kirk had been venting about pressure from wealthy pro-Israel donors, and the fallout was immediate. Owens said she acquired the details from an outside source that was not from Turning Point. 

‘Just lost another huge Jewish donor. $2million a year because we won’t cancel [Israel critic Tucker Carlson],’ Kirk wrote, in part. ‘I cannot and will not be bullied like this. Leaving me no choice but to leave the pro-Israel cause.’

Owens’ decision to share the messages publicly triggered alarm inside the movement.

What began as private grief erupted into a very public crisis – exactly the kind of distraction Kirk had always tried to prevent.

Instead of focusing on its grassroots mission and his legacy, Turning Point suddenly found itself fighting over the meaning of his words and the motives behind their release.

Andrew Kolvet, TPUSA’s spokesman and one of Kirk’s closest confidants, confirmed the texts were genuine but insisted they were being twisted out of context.

Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet speaks during a memorial service for Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk leaked text confirms he was livid about ‘bullying’ Jewish donors: ‘I’m leaving pro-Israel cause’

In a 23-minute segment on The Charlie Kirk Show, Kolvet said he already had the messages and provided them to federal investigators hunting suspected shooter Tyler Robinson, explaining that authorities wanted every possible clue about what led to the attack.

Kirk’s frustration, he said, was ‘nuanced’ – the venting of a man under enormous donor pressure to blacklist controversial figures like Tucker Carlson, not a total break with Israel. But the damage had been done. 

The Daily Mail can now reveal what happened behind the scenes, with senior figures urging staff and allies to stay out of the fray, warning that a public feud with Owens would only deepen the wound.

‘This was the kind of distraction Charlie always feared,’ a source told the Daily Mail.

Owens, who once worked for Turning Point and has since become a media juggernaut in her own right, has defended her pursuit of answers surrounding Charlie’s death as a way to honor her friend.

On her show, she claimed Kirk had appeared to her in a dream and suggested he’d been preparing to reunite with her professionally before his death.

‘Did he just, 48 hours later, conveniently catch a bullet to the throat before our on-stage reunion?’ she asked, a remark that sent shockwaves through the MAGA universe.

Charlie Kirk speaks at the opening of a Turning Point Action conference in 2023

Kirk and Owens from Turning Point USA listen as President Donald J Trump speaks in 2018

Kirk and Owens speak at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2018

Inside Turning Point, the comments landed like a grenade. They had expected the emergence of conspiracy theories surrounding Kirk’s death, but many of his allies expressed disappointment that it was Candace leading the charge. 

Kolvet, appearing again on Kirk’s show with producer Blake Neff, tried to steady the movement. ‘I’m actually relieved the truth is out there,’ he said, emphasizing that Kirk’s support for Israel remained, despite his private frustrations. 

He vowed the group would keep cooperating with law enforcement and pursue answers to every question surrounding his death. 

‘We want justice for Charlie,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘Our team is actively pursuing that and actively cooperating with investigators.’

Kolvet appealed to Kirk’s followers for patience.

‘We feel confident they have the guy who did this,’ he said to the Daily Mail. ‘But we’re still going to pursue every open question.’

He reminded supporters of what Kirk himself would have wanted: unity, not chaos. ‘We have a sacred duty to make sure all this love and support for him and Turning Point is not squandered,’ he said.

‘That’s what we’ll stay focused on, because Charlie would demand it of us.’

Owens responded ‘as a friend,’ to Kolvet, saying she was disappointed he hadn’t shared the texts with her privately, though she was ‘glad’ he’d handled the issue ‘correctly.’

She later compared the growing rift over Kirk’s legacy to Succession – ‘warring siblings fighting over the empire their father built.’

Inside Turning Point, staff privately lamented the irony. The man who had spent his career keeping rival factions at peace had become the subject of a feud, one source told the Daily Mail. 

One longtime friend of Kirk put it bluntly to the Daily Mail: ‘She is free to say what she wants, ask what she wants, I just think she’s taking it in the wrong direction.’