we've all been stuck inside to help stop the spread of the corona virus which as of April 20th has killed more than 41,000 Americans and infected over 2.4 million people worldwide but everyone's favorite screaming right-wing conspiracy theorist and Infowars owner Alex Jones took to the streets of Austin Texas this past weekend to protest the state's stay at home orders in an effort to reopen the state protesters many of whom are Trump supporters joined in on the you can't close America rally alongside Jones who was riding in the Sun roof of an Infowars branded tank esque
truck shouting nonsense through a megaphone at some point Jones ditched his tank truck and gathered shoulder to shoulder with a group of a few hundred people where his shouting continued he can be seen with no masks on shaking hands with folks who are praising him for his work the Texas protest was the latest in a series of similar demonstrations across the country including California Kentucky Maryland Michigan Ohio North Carolina last week Trump seemingly endorsed these protests with tweets like liber8 Michigan and liber8 Minnesota Jones is probably most famous for calling the Sandy Hook massacre a
hoax he later admitted it was real saying he had almost like a form of psychosis where he basically thought everything was staged looks like he's back at it if you want to learn more about how Alex Jones went from pushing bone conspiracy theories to still apparently doing that here's comedian Gary Richardson on Trump's favorite conspiracy theorist [Music] that's Alex Jones founder and host of Infowars the Internet's premier source for conspiracy theories and his tissue box that doubles as a gun holder you've ever heard someone from your high school Yale 9/11 was an inside job you
can thank Alex Jones Pitts I have a pioneer I'm an explorer my heart's big it's got hot blood going through it fast and oh yeah he has friends in high places I just want to finish by saying your reputations amazing I will not let you down you will be very very impressed I hope but long before he had the soon-to-be president on his program we have to go back to Texas where a baby conspiracy theorist was born Jones was born in 1974 in Dallas but grew up in a small suburb called Rockwall he moved to
Austin in 1991 where he played on the high school football team before graduating in 93 he's now popular in certain conservative circles but most of Jones's formative years were reportedly spent in the sack I'd already had probably hate to brag I'm I'm bragging it's actually shameful probably 150 women or more that's conservative separating himself even further from other adolescents in Texas Jones picked up Gary Allen's 1971 book none dare call it conspiracy that's where his interest in outlandish theories all began and then he discovered his talent for whatever this is before dropping out of Community
College Jones began subbing in for host on Austin's public access station his earliest conspiracy cases include the Waco Siege Jones claimed the government was behind the attack not a 0 another early case Joan Sunkist even too was the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that was carried out by domestic terrorists Timothy McVeigh Jones again blamed the government and yes it was a government building that was destroyed and he wasn't alone on that train of thought his mailbox began overflowing with fan mail and soon after he was giving his very own show on a CTV a public access
station in Austin yeah well I can assure you I don't make any money off public access at the same time he was doing three hours of radio a day Jones worked his way of the conspiracy ladder and today hosts a syndicated show titled the Alex Jones Show where he espouses conspiracy that stretched from Joan Rivers being murdered by Michelle Obama to this I've been told this by high up folks they say listen Obama and Hillary both smell like sulfur I never said it's just the media go crazy with it I've talked people that are in
protective details that means scared of it and they say listen she's a freaking demon and she stinks and so does Obama I go like what sulfur President Obama denies being a demon a guy on the radio who apparently Trump's on his show frequently said me and Hillary are demons said we smell like sulfur hate that son [Applause] Hillary Clinton has yet to comment after infowars.com launched in 1999 he began to build his empire of Lies and bogus dietary supplements Infowars help spread the pizza gate scandal in post headlines like Obama caught running Isis and why
Obama brought Ebola to us exposed although that is clearly million-dollar content this isn't where the money is most of his income comes from selling dietary supplements and other junk on the sites store this is the best toothpaste out there the toothpaste may be fluoride free but some products have been found to have high levels of lead in them Jones also continues to make a hefty chunk of change from the Hillary for prison shirt which quickly infiltrated the Republican base it's no surprise that Jones whose site Garner's 30 million visitors a month has this much influence
but sometimes the testosterone is so much that its words just won't cut it but ever since Jones popped his shirt back on he's been taking a little too seriously he's put several non evidentiary claims into existence such as Sandy Hook being a hoax a synthetic completely fake with actors in my view manufactured and his baseless claims have real effects influenced by Jones's non-factual rhetoric a Florida woman sent death threats to a parent of an innocent child killed in the Sandy Hook massacre in 2016 Jones promoted the pizza gate conspiracy Jones said there was a child
sex abuse ring at a Washington pizza parlor that involved John Podesta and Hillary Clinton they go to these pizza places there's like satanic art everywhere there's there's art of these people were there shoving children in the women's vaginas after Jones pushed his theory on the millions who tuned in one took action inspired by Jones's words a gullible dummy brought an ar-15 and other weapons until the DC pizza parlor and fired shots inside the gunman said he wanted to self investigate the conspiracy theory no one was hurt but Jones later apologized to the owner of the
pizza joint for influencing the violent attack under false pretense I made comments about mr. Ralph honest that in hindsight I regret and for which I apologize to him beside from prompting his viewers to investigate these absurd baseless claims Jones also used his platform to influence them to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election a relationship that had been brewing ever since his buddy and Infowars contributor Roger stone introduced the pair and our president is apparently a big fan of his Trump has ushered many of Jones's most baseless theories into circulation like this about Ted
Cruz well he picked that up from Infowars and when Trump raised suspicions about Justice Scalia's death you know I just landed and I'm hearing it's a big topic that's the question and it's a horrible topic but they say they found the pillow on a safe and you're like whoa red flag and then you realize that Obama's one vote away for me able to ban guns open the borders actually half the court engages Genda and now Scalia dies I mean this is hardcore just days before Trump first questioned Hillary's mental fitness Infowars released a video the
truth about Hillary's bizarre behavior we had seizures psychotic facial tics over exaggerated reactions coughing fits strange lesions on her tongue Trump appreciated content like this so much that he reportedly called Jones after winning the presidency to thank him for his support and on my way here Donald Trump gave me a call true or not Jones helped get Trump elected possibly more than any other news outlet his good buddy Roger stone even said so the role that you played the role that Infowars has played in fomenting this new american revolution should not be underestimated he may
have played a big role in the election cycle but his lawyers claim he is playing an even bigger role each time he dishes out one of his infamous red-faced rants the role of a character actor in a battle for custody of his kids Jones lawyer claimed the Infowars host was much different off camera saying he is nothing more than a performance artist and he's claimed he's playing a character on the show during the deposition Joan said he couldn't remember what great his kids were in because he had just eaten a big bowl of chili he
lost the case during the heat of the 2016 race nearly 4 million people visited Infowars to see what Jones was up to leaving us with little doubts that this guy played a large hand in crafting our current world [Music] [Music] hey thanks for watching who is did you know we have a podcast now - on who is the podcast I'll dive deep into the fascinating lives of the people who run things whose decisions impact every aspect of our lives how do they get where they are today and knowing that what might they do next from
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