Who is Alex Jones? Conspiracy Theorist & Host of Infowars | NowThis — Transcript

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1. 0:00And I’m sick of it!
2. 0:01I’m tired of it right now!
3. 0:02I can’t handle it anymore! AGH!
4. 0:04That’s Alex Jones.
5. 0:05Found and host of 'InfoWars,'
6. 0:07the internet’s premier source for conspiracy theories
7. 0:09and this tissue box that doubles as a gun holder.
8. 0:12Oh, yeah....
9. 0:13If you’ve ever heard someone from your high school yell,
10. 0:15“9/11 was an inside job,” you can thank Alex Jones for that.
11. 0:18I’m a pioneer, I’m an explorer.
12. 0:20My hear’s big!
13. 0:21It’s got hot blood going through it fast.
14. 0:24And oh yeah, he has friends in high places:
15. 0:27I just want to finish by saying, your reputation’s amazing.
16. 0:30I will not let you down.
17. 0:32You will be very very, uhh, impressed, I hope.
18. 0:35But long before he had the soon-to-be President on his program,
19. 0:37we have to go back to Texas where a baby conspiracy theorist was born.
20. 0:41Jones was born in 1974 in Dallas, but grew up in a small suburb called Rockwall.
21. 0:47He moved to Austin in 1991 where he played on the high school football team before graduating in ‘93.
22. 0:53He’s now popular in certain conservative circles,
23. 0:55but most of Jones’s formative years were reportedly spent in the sack.
24. 0:59I’d already had probably—I hate to brag, but I’m not bragging,
25. 1:02It’s actually shameful - probably 150 women, or more,
26. 1:05that’s conservative.
27. 1:06Separating himself even further from other adolescents in Texas,
28. 1:09Jones picked up Gary Allen’s 1971 book “None Dare Call It Conspiracy”.
29. 1:14That’s where his interest in outlandish theories all began.
30. 1:17And then he discovered his talent for… whatever this is.
31. 1:21God, look at this!
32. 1:22[Laughing]
33. 1:24[Screaming Laughing]
34. 1:25Before dropping out of Community College,
35. 1:27Jones began subbing in for hosts on Austin’s public access station.
36. 1:30His earliest conspiracy cases include the Waco Siege.
37. 1:33Jones claimed the government was behind the attack.
38. 1:36You oughta be ashamed of yourself—you don’t stand up for the constitution,
39. 1:39you stand for zip, nada, zero.
40. 1:41Another early case Jones sunk his teeth into
41. 1:43was the 1995 Oklahoma city bombing that was carried out by domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh.
42. 1:48Jones, again blamed the government.
43. 1:50And yes, it was a government building that was destroyed.
44. 1:53And he wasn’t alone on that train of thought,
45. 1:54his mailbox began overflowing with fan mail,
46. 1:57and soon after he was given his very own show on ACTV,
47. 2:00a public access station in Austin.
48. 2:02I come on public access and hang out. I’m on 24 hours a day they say.
49. 2:06Haha yeah, pretty close.
50. 2:08Well I can assure you, I don’t make any money off of public access.
51. 2:10At the same time, he was doing three hours of radio a day.
52. 2:14[Singing] In my arms...
53. 2:16Yeah, it’s Alex Jones, baby.
54. 2:18Jones worked his way up conspiracy ladder and today hosts a syndicated show titled “The Alex Jones Show,”
55. 2:24where he espouses conspiracies that stretch from Joan Rivers being murdered by Michelle Obama
56. 2:29to… this:
57. 2:30I’ve been told this by high-up folks,
58. 2:32they said ‘listen, Obama and Hillary both smell like sulfur.'
59. 2:36I’ve never said this because the media will go crazy with it,
60. 2:38but I’ve talked to people that are in protective details—
61. 2:41I mean, they’re scared of it.
62. 2:43They said, ‘listen, she’s a frickin’ demon,
63. 2:45she stinks and so does Obama.’ And I go, ‘like what?’ ‘Sulfur.”
64. 2:49President Obama denies being a demon.
65. 2:51There’s a guy on the radio who apparently—Trump’s on his show frequently,
66. 2:56he said me and Hillary are demons,
67. 2:59said we smell like sulfur.
68. 3:01Ain’t that something?
69. 3:03[Audience Laughing]
70. 3:09Hillary Clinton has yet to comment.
71. 3:11After InfoWars.com launched in 1999,
72. 3:13he began to build his empire of lies and bogus dietary supplements.
73. 3:17Infowars helped spread the ‘Pizzagate’ scandal,
74. 3:19and posts headlines like “Obama Caught Running Isis,”
75. 3:23and “Why Obama Brought Ebola To U.S. Exposed”.
76. 3:27Although that is clearly million dollar content,
77. 3:29this isn’t where the money is.
78. 3:31Most of his income comes from selling dietary supplements
79. 3:33and other junk on the site’s store.
80. 3:35This is the best toothpaste out there—
81. 3:37The toothpaste may be fluoride-free,
82. 3:39but some products have been found to have high levels of lead in them.
83. 3:42Jones also continues to make a hefty chunk of change
84. 3:44of change from the ‘Hillary for Prison” shirt,
85. 3:46which quickly infiltrated the Republican base.
86. 3:48[Chanting] Hillary for prison! Hillary for prison!
87. 3:52It’s no surprise that Jones, whose site garners 30 million visitors a month,
88. 3:56has this much influence.
89. 3:58But sometimes the testosterone is so much that his words just won’t cut it:
90. 4:02But ever since Jones popped his shirt back on,
91. 4:04he’s been taken a little too seriously.
92. 4:06He’s pushed several non-evidentiary claims into existence,
93. 4:10such as Sandy Hook being a hoax.
94. 4:12Sandy Hook is a synthetic, completely fake with actors—in my view manufactured.
95. 4:19And his baseless claims have real effects.
96. 4:22Influenced by Jones's non-factual rhetoric,
97. 4:24a Florida woman sent death threats to a parent of an innocent child killed in the Sandy Hook massacre.
98. 4:29In 2016, Jones promoted the ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy.
99. 4:33Jones said there was a child sex-abuse ring
100. 4:35at a Washington pizza parlor that involved John Podesta and Hillary Clinton.
101. 4:39They go to these pizza places, there’s like satanic art everywhere,
102. 4:43there’s art of these people where they’re shoving children into women’s vaginas.
103. 4:49After Jones pushed this theory on the millions who tune in, one took action.
104. 4:53Inspired by Jones’s words, a gullible dummy brought an AR-15 and other weapons into the D.C. pizza parlor
105. 4:58and fired shots inside.
106. 5:00The gunman said he wanted to “self-investigate” the conspiracy theory.
107. 5:03No one was hurt, but Jones later apologized to the owner of the pizza joint for
108. 5:08influencing the violent attack under false pretenses.
109. 5:10I made comments about Mr. Alefantis that in hindsight I regret,
110. 5:15and for which I apologize to him.
111. 5:17Aside from prompting his viewers to investigate these absurd, baseless claims,
112. 5:21Jones also used his platform to influence them to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election,
113. 5:26a relationship that had been brewing ever since his buddy and InfoWars contributor Roger Stone introduced the pair.
114. 5:32Obama...
115. 5:33B, U, K, K, A, K, E—some Japanese thing—
116. 5:37Bukkake!
117. 5:38And our president is apparently a big fan of his.
118. 5:41Trump has ushered many of Jones’s most baseless theories into circulation.
119. 5:45Like, this, about Ted Cruz:
120. 5:46His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald being — you know, shot.
121. 5:53Well, he picked that up from InfoWars.
122. 5:55And when Trump raised suspicions about Judge Scalia’s death...
123. 5:58You know, I just landed and I’m hearing it’s a big topic,
124. 6:01that us is the quetstion,
125. 6:03and it’s a horrible topic—
126. 6:05they say they found the pillow on his face which is a pretty unusual place to find a pillow.
127. 6:10Scalia found, it’s natural, nothing going on here. He just died naturally.
128. 6:15And you’re like, ‘Whoa. Red flag.'
129. 6:17Then you realize that Obama is one vote away from being able to ban guns,
130. 6:21open the borders and actually have the court engage in its agenda
131. 6:26and now Scalia dies.
132. 6:29I mean, this is hard core.
133. 6:32Just days before Trump first questioned Hillary’s mental fitness,
134. 6:36InfoWars released a video, “The Truth About Hillary’s Bizarre Behavior”
135. 6:40Weird seizures, psychotic facial tics,
136. 6:43over-exaggerated reactions,
137. 6:46coughing fits, strange lesions on her tongue.
138. 6:49Trump appreciated content like this so much
139. 6:52that he reportedly called Jones after winning the presidency to thank him for his support.
140. 6:56On my way here, Donald Trump gave me a call.
141. 6:59True or not, Jones helped get Trump elected,
142. 7:01possibly more than any other news outlet.
143. 7:03His good buddy Roger Stone even said so.
144. 7:06The role that you played,
145. 7:07the role that InfoWars has played in fomenting this new American revolution should not be underestimated.
146. 7:13He may have played a big role in the election cycle,
147. 7:16but his lawyers claim he is playing an even bigger role
148. 7:18each time he dishes out one of his infamous red-faced rants,
149. 7:21The role of a character actor.
150. 7:23In a battle for custody of his kids, Jones’ lawyer claimed the InfoWars host was much different off-camera.
151. 7:29Saying he is nothing more than a “performance artist,”
152. 7:32and claimed he’s claimed he’s “playing a character” on the show.
153. 7:35During a deposition,
154. 7:36Jones said he couldn’t remember what grade his kids were in
155. 7:39because he had just eaten
156. 7:41“a big bowl of chili”.
157. 7:42He lost the case.
158. 7:43And he may even lose more.
159. 7:45Jones claimed that several survivors of the Florida Parkland school shooting are actors.
160. 7:49He’s on thin ice with YouTube,
161. 7:50who has given his channel a strike,
162. 7:52only two more and his account will be terminated.
163. 7:55But even if he loses everything, he has a lot to show for.
164. 7:58During the heat of the 2016 race,
165. 8:00nearly 4 million people visited InfoWars to see what Jones was up to.
166. 8:04Leaving us with little doubts that this guy played a large hand in crafting our current world.
167. 8:10A year into office, you’ll be saying, 'wow,
168. 8:12I remember that interview, he said he was going to do it, and he did a great job"