President Barack Obama has vowed to be a regular presence on the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton, but he took the opportunity at a rally Tuesday to settle a different issue: whether he smells like sulfur — as in, like a demon.
“I was reading the other day. There’s a guy on the radio who apparently said me and Hillary are demons, said we smell like sulfur. Ain’t that something?” Obama joked at a Clinton rally in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Then, leaning over to take an exaggerated whiff of his arm, Obama cracked, “Now, I mean, come on people!”
Obama was responding to the claim by Alex Jones, founder of the conspiracy website “InfoWars” and host of “The Alex Jones Show” on radio, who warned viewers on his program that both the President and the Democratic presidential nominee carried the scent of demons.
“Hillary, reportedly, I mean, I was told by people around her that they think she’s demon-possessed, okay? I’m just going to go ahead and say it, okay,” he began.
“Imagine how bad she smells, man,” Jones continued. “I’m told her and Obama just stink, stink, stink, stink. You can’t wash that evil off, man. I’m told there’s a rotten smell around Hillary. I’m not kidding, people say — folks, I’ve been told this by high up folks. They say listen, Obama and Hillary both smell like sulfur. I never said this, because the media will go crazy with it, but I’ve talked to people that are in protective details — they’re scared of her. And they say listen, she’s a frickin demon and she stinks and so does Obama. I go, like what? Sulfur. They smell like Hell.”
Jones and his site are a controversial fixture in online media, mixing conservative criticism of government and politics with conspiratorial claims. Jones himself has falsely claimed that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by the government, and that the Sandy Hook attack and the Boston Marathon Bombing were “false flag” attacks also staged.
And Jones is a vocal proponent of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, hosting Trump on his radio show multiple times. Trump has returned the admiration, telling Jones that “your reputation is amazing,” and that he “will not let you down” in an interview in December 2015.