Conservative, Jewish-American commentator Josh Hammer released the final text messages exchanged between himself and his late friend, Charlie Kirk, on Thursday — after Candace Owens accused him of having foreknowledge of Kirk’s assassination last month.
On Tuesday, Owens shared a conspiratorial post speculating that Hammer knew that Kirk was going to be murdered on September 10 based on a September 9 post from Hammer endorsing public executions.
“I knew nothing about Josh Hammer’s random tweet about public executions the night before Charlie was publicly executed. In what context does that tweet make sense? Literally WTF,” wrote Owens on X.
After independent journalist Yashar Ali observed that Hammer’s post was related to the brutal murder of Iryna Zartutska in North Carolina, Owens doubled down.
“There is not a single shred of proof that you can produce that Josh Hammer was referring to Iriyna. Not one. Not even his own public statements about Iriyna’s murder. There was no new information about her murder that day so it wasn’t even trending,” declared Owens. “You are just covering for him and it won’t work.”
In a lengthy response on Thursday, Hammer excoriated Owens and shared the final texts he exchanged with his friend.
“I have been extremely reluctant to post screenshots from a murdered friend. It feels icky. I don’t like. But while I was offline this week for a holiday, a high-profile, deeply unwell lunatic used screenshots of an intimate group chat I was in with Charlie Kirk and some others to impugn my character in the worst way and allege I somehow had foreknowledge (or worse) of my own friend’s horrific assassination,” he began before continuing:
I have been extremely reluctant to post screenshots from a murdered friend. It feels icky. I don’t like it.
But while I was offline this week for a holiday, a high-profile, deeply unwell lunatic used screenshots of an intimate group chat I was in with Charlie Kirk and some others to impugn my character in the worst way and allege I somehow had foreknowledge (or worse) of my own friend’s horrific assassination.
In those screenshots—from about 3:30-4:00 PM EDT the day before he was killed—Charlie was blowing off steam in a private group chat setting. Donors have every right to withhold donations, and organization CEOs/chairmen have every right to then be upset when donors withhold those donations. That is just the nature of donors and donees in the not-for-profit space.
As I’ve previously explained (newsweek.com/grifters-desec), the notion that Charlie Kirk was “turning” on his career-long friendships with the Jewish people and the Jewish state of Israel—as opposed to (sarcastically!) blowing off steam in a private group chat setting—is an egregious lie and is belied by the facts.
Two hours after Charlie blew off steam in that chat, I joined a Zoom call with him and a few others. The New York Post covered this Zoom call shortly after Charlie’s death: nypost.com/2025/09/13/us-. In short, Charlie sought out our advice for how to better communicate the Israel issue on campus so as to be most effective with a younger Gen Z audience.
Charlie was passionate about fighting the mind virus of conspiratorial Jew-hatred—something he made clear over and over and over again.
The final-ever messages Charlie sent in this WhatsApp chat, which were delivered hours after the deeply out-of-context screenshots that the aforementioned lunatic and others have been discussing this week, make clear that Charlie was deeply grateful for our help. After our call, he felt more confident and reassured that he could make the case for the Jewish people and for Israel on college campuses.
These are literally Charlie’s final messages in that WhatsApp chat. Emotions can run high at times, but Charlie Kirk remained a true friend of the Jewish people and the Jewish state to the very end.
The attached screenshot included the following messages:
CHARLIE KIRK: Thank you for the help today guys!
JOSH HAMMER: Good luck as the campus visits start! Don’t hesitate to let me know (or any of us know) how I/we can help.
What’s your first stop tomorrow, by the way?
UNKNOWN: Honored to be of assistance.
KIRK: Utah valley U!
UNKNOWN: Say hi to your Antifa friends
KIRK: [Prayer emoji]
Owens has made a number of outrageous claims in the weeks since Kirk’s death, as well as pushed a wide variety of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories over the last two years.
The post Charlie Kirk’s Friend Josh Hammer Releases Final Messages Between Them After Deranged Candace Owens Smear first appeared on Mediaite.
