-
Send any friend a story
As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.
Give this article
Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn. The original school building was torn down after the 2012 mass shooting, and this new building reopened in 2016.
Alex Jones began lying about the Sandy Hook shooting within hours after it occurred and continued until he was sued. But because Mr. Jones was removed from virtually all major social media platforms in 2018 and refused to provide evidence in the Sandy Hook litigation, lawyers for the families had to dig deep to show the jury what he actually said about the shooting on his radio and online show.
Some of the clips existed on other social media accounts; some were retrieved from an old Infowars feed unearthed by Dan Friesen and Jordan Holmes, whose comedy podcast, “Knowledge Fight,” analyzes Jones’s mendacious broadcasts and his role in American conspiracy theories.
Mr. Jones’s Sandy Hook commentary went on for years. Here is a small sampling of what he said:
-
“My gut is, with the timing and everything that happened, this is staged. And you know I’ve been saying the last few months, get ready for big mass shootings, and then magically, it happens.”
-
“Folks, we got to get private investigators up to Sandy Hook right now. Because I’m telling you this — this stinks to highest heaven.”
-
“We’re sorry for everybody’s losses, whatever. We’re investigating this, though.”
-
“It’s as phony as a $3 bill.”
-
“You’ve got parents laughing — ‘hahaha’ — and then they walk over to the camera and go ‘boo hoo hoo,’ and not just one but a bunch of parents doing this and then photos of kids that are still alive they said died? I mean, they think we’re so dumb.”
-
“Why did Hitler blow up the Reichstag — to get control! Why do governments stage these things — to get our guns! Why can’t people get that through their head?”
-
“I watched the footage, and it looks like a drill.”
After Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie died at Sandy Hook, gave a news conference the night after the shooting, Mr. Jones said:
-
“You know, after you lose your daughter, they put you on some antidepressants or something, but I thought those take a month to kick in. I mean, it’s like a look of absolute satisfaction, like he’s about to accept an Oscar.”
-
“It looks like he’s saying, ‘OK, do I read off the card?’ He’s laughing, and then he goes over and starts basically breaking down and crying.”
Source: nytimes.com
