A bizarre interview Wednesday between far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — covering the January 6 insurrection and the COVID-19 pandemic — revealed the toxic nexus between right-wing media and Republican politics, and what sort of lies a future GOP majority might use its power to promote by holding public investigations.
Greene is currently one of the top fundraisers in the House, and she has the support of Fox News prime-time host and conservative media kingmaker Tucker Carlson, who recently donated to her campaign.
She and Jones discussed a conspiracy theory that has made its way from far-right media to Carlson’s show, and then from Carlson’s show to a Senate committee hearing: the claim that an Arizona man named Ray Epps was a central figure in a conspiracy to entrap Trump supporters on January 6. Epps was seen on video the night of January 5, 2021, telling a crowd of Trump supporters to enter the Capitol the next day, and he was also seen outside the Capitol building during the siege. Epps was identified online and interviewed by The Arizona Republic in the days following the attack, but it does not appear that he ever actually entered the Capitol or personally committed any violent acts that day.
Nevertheless, Epps has become a major figure in January 6 conspiracy theories — which have persisted even after the theory has been repeatedly debunked.
In this latest example, it was Greene who invoked Epps’ name as part of the supposed conspiracy. Initially, Jones bemoaned that Democrats were “trying to say I’m involved” in the insurrection, rhetorically asking, “I mean, how crazy is that?” (It’s not crazy at all, considering that Jones helped fund and plan the march and claimed the day after that the White House had directed him to lead the crowd to the Capitol.)
After assuring Jones that “you did absolutely nothing wrong,” and expressing her concern about the “innocent political prisoners” being held in jail, Greene added that Republicans would have to investigate Epps’ role in January 6 — that is, should the GOP win control of the House in the elections this November — in order to expose “all of their lies” surrounding what happened that day.