Elon Musk Hosted Alex Jones For a Nice Chat About the Time He Defamed Dead Children

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones says he’s sorry, again, for spreading lies about the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 young children dead. 

Jones doubled down on his apology during a livestream on X Space on Sunday, which was co-hosted by Elon Musk and entrepreneur Mario Nawfa, and featured a rogue’s gallery of speakers. (Other guests included “manosphere” influencer Andrew Tate, who is facing trafficking and sexual assault charges in Europe, far-right activist Laura Loomer, and presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.)

The event was Jones’ first big public hurrah since Musk reinstated his account on X, ending his five-year “permanent suspension” from the platform, formerly known as Twitter. 

Musk asked Jones about “the whole Sandy Hook thing” during that event. “So what exactly did you say and what is wrong with that situation?” Musk asked Jones. 

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Jones, who was ordered to pay $1.4 billion in defamation damages last year for falsely claiming that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, tried to argue that the judge who oversaw the case was politically biased. Jones’ followers bombarded family members of Sandy Hook victims with threats and harassment; the mother of a 7-year-old boy who was killed in the shooting testified that one of Jones’ supporters urinated on his grave.

Jones said that he underestimated his influence at that time. “I had a very small operation and did not even understand how powerful I was,” Jones said. “I’m really just a guy… I just take calls and interview guests and that I play devil’s advocate.” 

“If that hurt people’s feelings, I apologize,” said Jones. “But I did not send people to your houses. I did not pee on graves.”

Musk’s decision to bring back Jones came after the Infowars host had a cozy, sit-down 90-minute interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, which was shared on X last week and has since racked up 16 million views. In the interview, Jones rattled off some of his standard conspiracies, claiming for example that the government is putting electromagnetically-activated “smart dust” in people’s food. He also took a swipe at Musk, complaining that he remained banished from X despite calls from his supporters to reinstate his account. “‘Hey, if you’re such an absolutist on free speech, bring back Alex Jones,’” said Jones, claiming to paraphrase one of his supporters. 

The interview clearly caught Musk’s interest. Days after it was posted, Musk shared a poll asking whether he should bring back America’s most prominent conspiracy theorist. 70% of respondents said he should. 

In a post on Monday, Jones appeared to credit the interview with Carlson for his return to X. “It enabled me to escape the phantom zone and let the world know what I really stand for!” Jones wrote. “Tucker broke the Matrix!” 

Jones’ reinstatement on X is just the latest controversial personality to return to the platform under Musk. After the billionaire completed his purchase of X a year ago, he declared an “amnesty” for accounts that had been banned under previous ownership. This meant a lot of far-right personalities, including ones who were deplatformed in the wake of the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, returned in full force and, once again, began spreading their conspiracies and hateful ideologies to a wide audience.