Candace Owens is doubling down on her support for Ye—formerly known as Kanye West—despite the artist’s widely condemned statements and associations, including recent praise for Nazi ideology.
Appearing on The Jason Lee Show, Owens claimed that before dismissing Ye entirely, the public and media need to take a closer look at celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak and his alleged role in the rapper’s 2016 hospitalization.
Ye’s breakdown in 2016, which led to his involuntary commitment at UCLA Medical Center, resurfaced in controversy after the rapper posted text messages allegedly from Pasternak, in which the trainer appeared to threaten another forced hospitalization. One message reads:
“Second option. I have you institutionalized again where they medicate the crap out of you, and you go back to Zombieland forever.”
Owens argued that these texts, along with Pasternak’s military background and connections to other deceased celebrities, raise alarming questions.
“I will always love Ye, I will always defend him because I think he did one of the bravest things in speaking about what happened to him,” Owens said during the interview. “And the questions were never answered about what Harley Pasternak did to him that night.”
Owens went on to suggest that Pasternak’s background includes “military training” and experimentation on humans with drugs—a reference she connected to the CIA’s MK-Ultra program.
She compared Ye’s experience to that of Britney Spears and cited the bathroom-related deaths of Brittany Murphy and Aaron Carter, both of whom had either ties to or made mention of Pasternak.
“What the hell is he doing as a gym trainer in LA to all the stars?” Owens questioned. “So I have questions about what happened to Kanye, and I will always be [supportive] until we get those answers.”
The controversial defense comes at a time when Ye remains under intense scrutiny for his inflammatory public remarks and affiliations, which have caused former allies to distance themselves.
Owens’ comments are likely to stoke further division, as they mix legitimate concern about celebrity mental health with fringe theories involving government mind-control and Hollywood conspiracies.
