Megyn Kelly, Alex Jones spar on Sandy Hook claims
Megyn Kelly started her Sunday night show acknowledging the controversy surrounding her pre-taped interview with Infowars’s Alex Jones.
It’s his “outrageous statement that the slaughter of innocent children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School, one of the darkest chapters in American history, was a hoax” that prompted the outcry against her interview.
During her interview, Kelly read to Jones portions of his Infowars claims that the massacre did not happen.
“You’re trying to have it all ways, right?” she asked at one point about his Sandy Hook claims. “If you wrongly went out there and said it was a hoax, that’s wrong.”
{mosads}“What I already answered your question was, listeners and other people were covering this, I didn’t create that story,” Jones responded, before being interrupted by an apparently frustrated Kelly.
“Alex, the parents, one after the other, devastated, the dead bodies that the coroner autopsied…”
“They’ve locked all that, won’t release any of it,” he replied.
“All the parents decided to come out about their dead children? What happened to the children?” she asked.
“I will sit there on the air and play out every position and play devil’s advocate,” he said in his defense.
“When you say parents faked their children’s death, people get very angry,” Kelly noted.
“Oh I know,” he replied. “But they don’t get angry about the half-million dead Iraqis from the sanctions. Or they don’t get angry about all the illegals pouring in…”
“That’s a dodge,” Kelly said.
“No, no. It’s not a dodge. The media never covers all the evil wars it’s promoted and all the big things. … Here’s the difference. I looked at all the angles of Newtown [Conn.]. And I made my statements long before the media even picked up on it.”
“I tend to believe that children probably did die there. But then you look at all the other evidence on the other side. I can see how other people believe that nobody died there,” he concluded.
Kelly notes in a voice-over that there is “no evidence on the other side.”
Neil Heslin’s son was killed at Sandy Hook, and he had a simple message for Jones on Sunday.
“You know, it’s disrespectful to me where in fact I did lose my son,” he told Kelly. “And the 26 other families lost somebody. And I take that very personal.”
Noting that the interview was airing on Father’s Day, she asked if he had a message for Jones.
“I think he’s blessed to have his children to spend the day with, to speak to. I don’t have that.”
WVIT, a Connecticut TV station, refused to air Sunday’s episode of “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly.”
Last week the Sandy Hook Promise group removed Kelly as a host for its gala over the interivew.
Jones on Thursday released secretly taped audio of his interview with Kelly three days before the official airing was supposed to occur on NBC.
Jones taped the interview and released portions ahead of Sunday’s airing on NBC.
NBC responded, saying: “Despite Alex Jones’ efforts to distract from and ultimately prevent the airing of our report, we remain committed to giving viewers context and insight into a controversial and polarizing figure, how he relates to the president of the United States and influences others, and to getting this serious story right. Tune in Sunday.”
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed..