We Hate to Say This, But Alex Jones Just Owned Megyn Kelly

When Megyn Kelly contacted Infowars conspiracy theorist and all-around blowhard Alex Jones about an interview on her NBC show, Jones immediately smelled a rat. It turns out that although he may be despicable, he’s not entirely stupid. Knowing that Kelly would likely try to take him to task for his controversial beliefs—such as “gaming” the idea that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax—Jones decided to record Kelly’s pre-interview pitch as a way to protect himself later.

And after NBC aired a dramatic teaser in which Kelly attacks Jones for dodging her questions, Jones released audio from those pre-interview recordings as a way to show how dishonest Kelly was about the nature of the interview. In Jones’ YouTube clip, Kelly can be heard saying things like:

My goal is for your listeners and the left—you know, who will be watching some on NBC—to say, ‘Wow, that’s really interesting.’ It’s not going to be some gotcha hit piece, I promise you that.

She even offered awkwardly high praise for the man, such as:

The reason you are interesting to me is because I followed your custody case and I think you had a very good point about the way the media was covering it. And for some reason they treated you and your family as fair game, and they never would have done that [to a] mainstream-media figure … I saw a different side of you and you became very fascinating to me. Your comments during the trial just reminded me you are just like anybody and I thought that would be an interesting story to tell.

Kelly even claimed she would let Jones look at the footage ahead of time before it aired and that they wouldn’t cut it to paint him in a negative light:

I will personally promise to look at any clips we want to use of you, and have a producer run by you, whether we are taking it in context, what you are saying … If I ask you about any controversy, you’ll have the chance to address it fully. We won’t cut you in a way that is going to take out the heart of your explanation or the real substance of it.

All this paints Kelly in an extremely negative light—in private conversations with Jones, she actually seems sympathetic to his ridiculous views in what is clearly a ploy to land the interview. And it seems, at best, ethically dubious—she tells Jones that the segment will be a personality piece, then attacks him and cuts the finished product to make him appear to be saying something he isn’t.

We’ll have to wait for Sunday to see exactly how this all plays out, but it looks like Jones essentially exposed Kelly. Finally, a win for the good guys. (Save your anger—that was sarcasm.)

Watch Alex Jones’ full clip with interview snippets and the phone call audio below.