As Donald Trump warned of voter fraud before November’s election and said afterward he believed millions of illegal votes were cast, the website Infowars and its founder Alex Jones were right with him — or even ahead of him.
“Rampant election fraud in the United States Is no secret,” the site said on Wednesday.
While many media outlets have debunked Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud, Infowars has long been pushing a fraudulent vote narrative.
Here’s a closer look at Infowars and Jones:
Infowars and conspiracy theories
Jones and his multimedia business, including Infowars.com, mix criticism of government with conspiracy claims, purporting to reveal what other media outlets refuse to report.
The Texas-based Jones started out on one radio station in 1996. He now hosts a three-hour, Monday-through-Friday syndicated news-talk radio program he says is carried on more than 160 stations. The show also streams over the Internet, and he and his staff post web videos and articles.
His online biography says he and Infowars are “seeking the truth and exposing the scientifically engineered lies of the globalists and their ultimate goal of enslaving humanity.”
A common theme: That governments are trying to destroy liberties and pave the way for world dominance by corporations and banks.
Here are some of the conspiracy theories that Jones or Infowars have espoused:
• The 9/11 attacks were an “inside job,” orchestrated in part by the US government, allowing governments across the world to destroy freedoms and enrich military-industrial complexes as a result.
• The 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a government hoax. In 2016, he said he wasn’t sure what happened, but repeated arguments that he said pointed to a hoax.
• The federal government carried out the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
• The 2013 Boston Marathon bombing was a staged “false flag” attack.
• The Social Security Administration may have been buying ammunition to use against the public in the event of unrest. In 2012, when the SSA announced it was looking for a supplier from whom to buy 174,000 hollow-point bullets, Infowars questioned whether the agency was preparing for “civil unrest.” In response, the administration issued a statement saying that its 295 agents needed the bullets for target practice and to protect the agency’s 66 offices across the nation.