Conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones falsely claimed he never called the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School a hoax moments before pushing a barrage of conspiracy theories about the tragedy.

Jones addressed the Sandy Hook shooting in response to a November 16 open letter to President-elect Donald Trump authored by Erica Lafferty, whose mother Dawn Hochsprung was the principal at Sandy Hook and was killed in the attack. In her letter, Lafferty asked Trump not to appear on Jones’ show because of the latter’s false claims about the Sandy Hook attack. (Jones has reported that Trump called him after the election to say that he would come on the show “in the next few weeks.”)

Jones, a leading conspiracy theorist and self-proclaimed “founding father” of the 9/11 Truth movement (which claims that the U.S. government executed the terrorist attacks or allowed them to happen) was a key Trump media ally during the campaign, and Trump praised Jones as having an “amazing” reputation during an appearance on his show.

On the November 17 broadcast of The Alex Jones Show, Jones claimed his past statements on Sandy Hook had been taken “out of context” and that he had never called the shooting a hoax. (In fact, he has done exactly that. PolitiFact rated as “true” the claim that Jones “said that the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre were child actors and no one was actually killed there,” citing numerous broadcasts where he made the claim, including one in which he said that the shooting was “a giant hoax.”)

Moments after denying he had called the shooting a hoax, Jones pushed several of the most prominent conspiracy theories about the shooting, including the following claims:

• CNN anchor Anderson Cooper reported on the shooting “using a green screen,” which you can tell because “his nose disappears”;

• there is footage of “the kids going in circles back into the buildings” after the shooting;

• the Sandy Hook school “was closed years before” the shooting;

• “no emergency helicopters were launched” to respond to the shooting; and

• “weird videos of reported parents of kids laughing and then all of a sudden they do the hyperventilating to cry to go on TV” reveal that the parents were actors.

Jones added that “we’ve sent reporters up there, man, and that place is like Children of the Corn or something. I mean it is freaking weird.” He concluded by saying, “All I know is something’s going on and you don’t like us looking at it. You don’t like us questioning you”:

ALEX JONES: And there were hundreds of articles yesterday, and CBS, and NBC, and ABC, and CNN, I can’t even watch them all. White House, you must -- Trump, you must break ties with Alex Jones the racist. No proof. And Alex Jones that says Sandy Hook didn’t happen. And they take a clip out of context where I’m war-gaming, that man the media lies so much I guess you could say no kids were killed and none of it happened and that it’s a whole total hoax because the media lies so much who knows what’s true. That was me responding to them saying I’m saying it never happened.

 

I’m attacked by the folks that say nothing happened for saying yes, Anderson Cooper is using a green screen, his nose disappears. Yes, they have the kids going in circles back into the buildings. Yes, the building was closed years before. Yes, it was filthy. Yes, no emergency helicopters were launched. Yes, they’re sealing the death certificates and everything. Yes, I even know FBI agents that say they think it’s suspicious. But I can’t believe they’re that bold, and so no. They set it up like, you don’t think this mother is real? No, I’m sure she is. But were the polls fake on Election Night? Did they send the questions to Hillary beforehand? In the WikiLeaks is there talk of supplying kids to hot tubs for quote “entertainment” for people? I mean, look, folks. Did Hillary put jihadis in control all over the world? All I know is there is no level these people won’t stoop too. So they take it out of context and, look, he says no children ever died from mass shooting. I never said that. I said you use these events and then package them and don’t let a good crisis go to waste, bare minimum.

 

We’ve hosted debates by the journalists that say Sandy Hook is exactly like they say it happened against people that say it didn’t happen. And then we get attacked by both sides for quote “covering up.” The truth is they have had national polls where upwards of half of Americans don’t believe Sandy Hook, because they don’t believe a word the mainstream media says. We’ve sent reporters up there, man, and that place is like Children of the Corn or something. I mean it is freaking weird. And then the weird videos of reported parents of kids laughing and then all of a sudden they do the hyperventilating to cry to go on TV. All I know is something’s going on and you don’t like us looking at it. You don’t like us questioning you.