After a week filled with outcry and calls to can the broadcast entirely, Megyn Kelly’s heavily-hyped interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones finally aired tonight on NBC’s “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly.”
As expected, much time was spent on Jones’ promotion of various conspiracy theories and the occasional trouble it’s gotten him in. Not only the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, but his recent legal battle with Chobani Yogurt, as well as comments he made after the devastating Manchester terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert last month were brought up. But Jones’ purported relationship with Donald Trump – or lack thereof, according to Jones — was also under discussion during the segment.
By far the most contentious part came when the discussion turned to the Sandy Hook massacre. Called out by Kelly for referring to Sandy hook as a hoax that “Pretty much didn’t happen,” Jones deflected and denied, oscillating between claiming to play devils advocate, and appearing to still believe it was a hoax.
“At that point, and I do think there’s some cover-up and some manipulation, that is pretty much what I believed,” he said.” But then I was also going into devil’s advocate.”
“But you’re trying to have it all ways, right?,” countered Kelly. Jones denied this, insisting “I didn’t create that story”
Even so, after Kelly brought up the families of the victims, Jones appeared, for a moment, to return to the conspiracy theory. “And they blocked all that,” he said about the bodies of the victims. “And they won’t release any of it. That’s unprecedented.”
Pressed further about his previous assertions that Sandy Hook was a hoax, Jones fell back on his claims he plays devil’s advocate. “I remember, even that day, to go back from memory, then saying, “But then, some of it looks like it’s real.” But then what do you do, when they’ve got the kids going in circles, in and out of the building with their hands up? I’ve watched the footage. And it looks like a drill.”
Jones deflected when asked about the outrage his claims provoked. “They don’t get angry about the half million dead Iraqis from the sanctions,” he said. “Or they don’t get angry about all the illegals pouring in…”
Jones blamed the media for never covering “evil wars,” and then defended his earlier positions, saying “I looked at all the angles of Newtown. And I made my statements long before the media even picked up on it.”
The interview also touched on Jones’ promotion of the absurd “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, and the lawsuit filed against him by Chobani Yogurt after he spread the false story that Chobani employees committed sexual assault in Idaho. His comments about “liberal trendies” at the Ariana Grande concert, that implied they deserved their fate for being insufficiently tough on immigration also came up. As did his connection to Donald Trump, which he downplays — “I think my influence on Trump is way, way lower than what MSM has said,” said Jones.
Jones spent the week ahead of the broadcast denouncing Kelly and NBC, while bracing for what looked like a bad hit to his public profile. Anticipating the focus on Sandy Hook, he released a video hours before airtime containing a Fathers’ Day message to the Sandy Hook families, offering his “sincere condolences,” and saying that “parents should never have to bury their own children.”
Jones also livestreamed an episode of “InfoWars” during the NBC broadcast, offering rambling commentary and attempted rebuttals of the points raised during the interview.