Jerome Corsi, newly announced as the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars, said the outlet has formally applied for White House press credentials. Corsi said the Trump administration reportedly “didn’t think there would be any problem” admitting the 9/11 truther’s site to report alongside other news media from the official briefing room.
Jones has promoted numerous conspiracy theories and false stories including the claim that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were perpetrated by the U.S. government and the allegation that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax done with actors.
Corsi, like Jones, is a conspiracy theorist with a long history of pushing discredited attacks and allegations, including the complete falsehood that former President Barack Obama has a phony birth certificate.
During a January 31 appearance on The Alex Jones Show, Corsi told Jones he was “very excited to get to Washington, to establish press credentials at the White House, and to create the Washington news bureau for Infowars.” He said he had submitted the pertinent information to the White House, including his birth certificate, joking, “I have to have a birth certificate. Of course, Barack Obama doesn’t.”
Corsi said that he hoped that by early next week, “Infowars.com is going to be in the press briefings at the White House as White House-accredited press.”
Last week, Jones claimed that Infowars had been invited to cover White House press briefings. The White House denied those reports, and Jones then claimed he had been taken out of context and was just considering applying for credentials. Today, Jones characterized that coverage as unfairly critical of Infowars’ “work.” Corsi responded that the “White House press office today didn’t think there would be any problem in Infowars and Alex Jones and me getting press credentials.”
Later in the program, Jones and Corsi discussed how they hoped to leverage their placement in the White House briefing room to promote and pursue conspiracy theories. Corsi suggested he would ask White House press secretary Sean Spicer about the conspiracy theory that people participating in recent protests against Trump were “recruited professional thugs” who were “paid” to conduct “astroturf protests.”
Jones said that “just by being there” in the White House they would be able to move news organizations that publish mainstream news stories “out of the way.” Corsi contrasted Infowars with most of the reporters in the briefing room, who he said are “all of a like ideological leftist agenda” and who he said are “all set out to attack everything Donald Trump does.”