Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones issued another apology for his comments about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting Sunday, as tech billionaire Elon Musk asked him about the controversy amid his reinstatement on Musk’s platform X (formerly Twitter).
The Infowars host was pressed on the issue during an appearance on X Spaces livestream co-hosted by Musk and Mario Nawfal on Sunday.
“One of the questions I really have to just get out of the way, and I and you’re probably talking about this already before, is the whole Sandy Hook thing,” Musk asked Jones. “So what exactly did you say and what is wrong with that situation?”
In response, Jones said that he was simply trying to cover the news of the mass shooting, noting that he fell victim to a politically motivated judge, noting former President Trump’s ongoing legal challenges in New York.
“And I had a very small operation and did not even understand how powerful I was. And so when that event is called, the school shooting, which I do believe happened, happened 11 years ago,” Jones said in response. “The Internet exploded, and it was the top story for off and on for years with all the with all these professors and former school safety people and all of them saying they believed it was a drill, and I simply covered them covering that.”
“And so suddenly I would wake up and there would be sometimes 100 articles or more a day, every major news channel saying that I was currently saying nobody died currently sending people to their houses, currently peeing on graves,” Jones added.
Jones also said that he had to give numerous apologies for his comments about Sandy Hook, claiming that he was just playing “devil’s advocate” and he did not believe the shooting was staged.
“I apologize on every show. And I’ll say it again, I apologize that I just gave my commentary because I’m really just a guy … talk radio host. So I do that on the Internet. I just take calls and interview guests and that I play devil’s advocate,” Jones explained. “And if that hurt people’s feelings, I apologize. But I did not send people to your houses. I did not pee on graves. I don’t know any of the stuff that went on.”
Jones received massive criticism and scrutiny for promoting conspiracy theories, including his one on Sandy Hook. He stated that the massacre, which left 20 children dead, was a so-called false flag event that was designed to shore up support for gun control.
Families of the victims sued the Infowars host over the conspiracy theory, which resulted in their winning nearly $1.5 billion in judgments against him.
Jones’s appearance on the X Space livestreams came hours after Musk announced the controversial host’s return to the platform, conducting a poll Saturday asking users whether he should reinstate Jones’s account.
The poll’s results showed 70 percent of respondents were in favor of Jones returning to the platform.
Jones — along with his Infowars account — was permanently banned from Twitter in 2018 for violating its abusive behavior policy. The platform received criticism from many for not taking action against Jones earlier.