Adding fuel to the controversial buildup to Megyn Kelly’s upcoming interview with Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist released late Thursday a secretly recorded conversation with the NBC host.
And it is not flattering to either party, nor Barbara Walters, the celebrated journalist and former NBC “Today Show” host, whom Kelly appeared to diss.
“I’ve never done this in 22 years, I’ve never recorded another journalist,” Jones said in an earlier video on Thursday, which included parts of his off-the-record talk with Kelly. “I’ve never done this but I knew it was a fraud, that it was a lie.”
Jones, who has an audience of millions for his InfoWars show, later posted the extended version (below) of their conversation, in which he injects commentary between his exchanges with Kelly before the interview.
Kelly can be heard telling Jones that the show, due to air Sunday, is not a “gotcha” piece. She finds him “fascinating” and more than a “one-dimensional guy,” she says. Kelly promises Jones that she wouldn’t attack him but suggested she wouldn’t be soft either. “Of course I’m doing a fair interview,” she says. “I’m still me. I’m not going to go out there and be Barbara Walters.”
Jones contrasted a preview clip of the actual interview in which the former Fox News host grilled him about his infamous denial of the Sandy Hook massacre with an off-the-record audio clip of him acknowledging to Kelly that “people died there.”
Echoing what his defense claimed in his divorce trial in April, Jones told Kelly there are times when he plays devil’s advocate on his show and “I don’t literally believe what I’m saying.”
After leaking the footage, Jones said of NBC, “What are they going to do, when I’ve got the tapes of what really happened?”
Jones said he taped NBC’s actual interview as well and would call out the network if its edited version betrayed him.
The InfoWars host added that Kelly was “obsessed” with him.
J.P. Morgan Chase has pulled its local TV ads and digital ads from all NBC News programming, including Kelly’s show, over the interview. And Sandy Hook victims’ families have threatened to sue NBC if it airs the interview Sunday.
An NBC spokesman confirmed in a statement to HuffPost Friday that the network still planned to broadcast the interview, as planned.
“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,” the spokesman said.
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