Brian Doben/NBC News(NEW YORK) — Controversial radio host Alex Jones released what he said is secretly-recorded audio of phone conversations with Megyn Kelly in an apparent attempt to discredit an upcoming broadcast of her interview with him as a “fraud” and a “hit piece.”
The InfoWars site host known for spouting provocative conspiracy theories, including that the 9/11 terror attacks involved the U.S. government, and questioning whether the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax, on Thursday released what he said are clips from conversations with Kelly prior to the taping of the interview that is scheduled to air Sunday evening.
Jones released the audio clips on his InfoWars website with accompanying text saying that he “has released recordings made during a pre-interview between himself and Megyn Kelly to set the record straight after the release of the highly edited promo for the NBC host’s upcoming hit piece.”
NBC News said Friday it will go ahead with Kelly’s report on Jones despite what it said were his “efforts to distract and ultimately prevent” its airing.
The network said it remains “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.”
In the audio clips Jones released, he splices in his own commentary reflecting on his conversations with Kelly.
He said he secretly recorded Kelly and that, in addition to the released audio clips, he has a full recording of their entire unedited sit-down interview.
“I’ve never done this, but I knew it was a fraud, that it was a lie,” Jones said of his interview with Kelly in a teaser video he posted on Twitter on Thursday ahead of his release of the clips.
“Megan Kelly waltzed in here to Austin, Texas, and told me that she wasn’t going to talk about Sandy Hook … she wasn’t going to talk about Islamic terror attacks, that she wanted to do a softball profile of Alex Jones,” he said in the video.
“She got here with her crew of intelligence operatives,” Jones said. “She did the opposite of what she said.”
He said, “We have a record of it so that you can decide for yourself what I really said and what I stood for.”
Asked for comment on Jones’ statements, an NBC News spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the network’s general statement about Jones and the interview.
Kelly’s interview with Jones has also sparked a backlash from parents of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre who have urged NBC not to give Jones airtime because he’s theorized the shooting could have been a hoax.
In the audio released by Jones, he appears to walk back some of his previous comments about the shooting, saying, “In hindsight I think it probably did happen.”
Kelly is heard in the audio suggesting to Jones that she would be fair to him in the interview.
“This is not going to be a contentious, ‘gotcha’ exchange” she said of the interview. “That’s not what this show is and that’s not what I want to do.”
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