JD Vance Defends Alex Jones After Calling Him ‘More Reputable Source’ Than Rachel Maddow: I’m ‘Kinda Trolling Everybody’
Hillbilly Elegy author and Ohio Republican Senate candidate JD Vance defended himself for claiming that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is a “far more reputable source of information than Rachel Maddow.”
Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade spoke to Vance on Tuesday for his radio show, and during their conversation, Kilmeade brought up Maddow’s recent promotion of a “totally irresponsible and inaccurate” story about ivermectin overdose patients clogging up Oklahoma hospitals.
The story was based primarily on a doctor whose credibility has been challenged by the local health system, and as the development became a media commotion over the weekend, Vance decided to tweet that “Alex Jones is a far more reputable source of information than Rachel Maddow.”
Alex Jones is a far more reputable source of information than Rachel Maddow.
One of them is censored by the regime. The other promoted by it. https://t.co/zPtXWMTQj9
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) September 5, 2021
Vance, in turn, has been criticized for elevating the conspiracy theorist famous for promoting Pizzagate, 9/11 trutherism, Sandy Hook Massacre hoax claims, and many other kinds of odious ideas over the years.
Kilmeade brought all of this up as he asked Vance “were you exaggerating to point out that Rachel Maddow is overrated?”
After answering that Jones’ 9/11 trutherism is “obviously crazy,” Vance said his point was “this is a guy who says some crazy stuff. He also says occasionally things that I think are interesting.”
Rachel Maddow is a person who has fallen for every conspiracy theory, every hoax that has been popular in left-wing circles for years now, and there’s this weird way where people still assume she’s a reputable source of information. And I’m just kinda trolling everybody a little bit.
Without listing examples, Vance continued to claim that Maddow is “even more wrong than this person who engaged in some pretty wacky conspiracy theory over the years.”
He underlined this by arguing that the political left has no self-awareness for when “some of the sources of information they see as legitimate are as consistently wrong as anybody in American public life today.”
The conversation went on with Kilmeade recalling that Spotify faced outrage when podcaster Joe Rogan hosted Jones on his show and pushed several anti-vaccine talking points together. Rogan recently battled Covid with unproven medicinal treatments, and it turns out that the anti-vax claims he and Jones discussed were exaggerated and misleading.
Vance went on by complaining that America is “totally uncomfortable with wild and wacky people” who happen to be spreading misinformation about a virus that has killed almost 650,000 Americans so far.
“That, to me, is not the sign of a healthy society,” he said. “That’s the sign of a society that is really uncomfortable with people who think outside of the box and that’s just not where I am.”
Listen above, via Fox News Radio.
